9 September 2026

New article in the Human Rights Law Review: friendly settlement, fairness and trust

Veronika Fikfak, Izabela Skoczeń and Benedikt Pirker have published "An Effective Settlement Architecture? How Friendly Settlement Affects the Perception of Fairness and Trust" in the Human Rights Law Review (2026, Vol. 26, Issue 3).

Almost a third of would-be cases before the European Court of Human Rights end in a friendly settlement rather than a judgment. Using a between-subjects experiment with 2,064 participants, the article tests how each stage of the settlement process shapes the willingness to settle and how fair and trustworthy the process feels. The results show that the settlement architecture is experienced as unfair and that contact with it reduces trust in the Court itself — a serious concern for a system in which more than 12,000 cases that would likely have ended in a finding of violation have been settled.

The research forms part of the Break the Bias / Access to Justice project.