‘What are the characteristics of ECtHR cases originating from a conflict between two private actors and how can the Court deal with such verticalized cases while taking due care of the procedural rights of private actors, as well as the position of Convention States and the Court itself?’ (p. 8). This fundamental research question is the crux of the publication at hand, in which the author examines extensively the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR)'s treatment of so-called verticalised cases, i.e. those transformed from a conflict between two private actors at the national level (horizontal conflict) into a conflict between a private actor and a state (vertical conflict), thus being capable of being brought before the ECtHR. The increasing frequency with which the Court is confronted with such verticalised cases, along with the issues they pose, most notably the lack of a serious possibility for ‘disappeared parties’ to exercise their rights and interests before the Court, prompted the author to create a new approach to dealing with such cases. This is even more important since the underlying Convention system was not originally designed for verticalised cases, posing a challenge not only for private actors and Convention States, but also for the Court itself (p. 6 ff.).

The book is divided into four parts, with a total of eleven chapters, and is a publication of the author‘s doctoral thesis. The first part provides an insight into the Convention system by analysing its history and intentions, its key principles – being the principle of effectiveness and the principle of subsidiarity – as well as the procedural rules and standards of proceedings before the ECtHR, which underpin the following analysis. In the second part, the author discusses the so-called horizontal positive obligations of Convention States, obliging them ‘to take action to secure the rights and liberties guaranteed in the Convention in relations between private actors’ (p. 75). The need to address these obligations, she explains, stems from the fact that such obligations are oft en imposed in cases arising from horizontal conflicts at a national level (p. 75 ff.). As part of an in-depth analysis of verticalised cases before the ECtHR, in the sixth chapter, the author demonstrates the Court‘s current approach when dealing with such cases.