A departure in the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights as part of a narrative structure

This paper analyses a departure in the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights from a narratological perspective. In particular, a departure is being considered as part of a larger textual structure—a chain of cases—instead of being restricted only to the text of a particular judgment which contains a departure. At the level of a chain of cases the narrativity of judgments is revealed through certain characteristics (theme, narrator, etc.). In order to demonstrate how these characteristics help to understand the logic of a departure, the paper analyses how a departure is textually constructed in one of chains of cases of the European Court of Human Rights.