Volokh v. Ukraine

It turns out there’s a 2006 case from the European Court of Human Rights called Volokh v. Ukraine. (It’s labeled Volokhy v. Ukraine in the linked document, but that’s just the Ukrainian plural of Volokh, so it’s like Volokhs v. Ukraine — cf. our own Cohens v. Virginia — and usual American citation practices would call this Volokh v. Ukraine.)

The case is about two Ukrainians from Poltava, Olga (possibly Ol’ha, though the English translation here gives the Russian form of her name) and her son Mykhaylo Volokh. Mykhaylo’s brother was under criminal investigation but skipped town; the Ukrainian authorities got a court order for surveillance of the Volokhs’ communications; eventually the brother showed up and the criminal case was dropped; and Olga and Mykhaylo sued for damages suffered as a result of the surveillance.

This case went to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, which determined that their rights were violated and they deserved compensation, though they got fairly nominal damages: 1000 euros each, rather than the 50,000 and 75,000 euros they had been asking for.

Anyway, it’s possible that these Volokhs are more-or-less distant relatives of ours, but we otherwise don’t know anything about it. Regardless, good on them for having successfully sued and gotten money from their government.

UPDATE: Also, here I am in Azerbaijan.

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