Belgium¶
The Belgian cases show how a state can disregard its courts without openly defying them. Judgments are not rejected; they go unexecuted because compliance depends on capacity the government sets through its budget. Responsibility is spread across ministries and agencies, so non-compliance appears as administrative shortfall rather than political choice. Where the remedy a court orders costs money, the budget decides whether the order is obeyed.
The clerk’s briefs¶
From the clerks, for the Patrician’s eyes
Worth a look. Asylum seekers bear the cost first, holding judgments that do not give them a bed. Judges lose authority each time an order goes unexecuted, and lawyers may stop advising clients to sue. Other claimants against the state could meet the same answer once it is accepted for one group. Enforcement through penalty payments, or a political decision to fund capacity, would interrupt it.
April 2026: Again, systemic¶
On 9 April 2026 the European Court of Human Rights ruled in M.V. and Others v. Belgium that four asylum seekers who had lived on the street for months, despite final orders of the Brussels Employment Tribunal that the state house them, had suffered degrading treatment, and that the time taken to enforce those orders was not reasonable. The clerks note that three years after Camara the court was counting the same failure.
September 2025: The Committee of Ministers¶
Supervising the execution of the Camara judgment, the Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers recalled on 17 September 2025 that the case “concerns a clear refusal by the authorities to comply” with a July 2022 order of the Brussels Labour Tribunal to house the applicant, and that the Court had found “a systemic problem, incompatible with the rule of law”. It noted that the number of asylum seekers awaiting reception had “fallen sharply”, but with concern “the steady reduction in the number of reception places since the end of 2024” and planned “major cuts” to the reception budget. The clerks note that a shorter queue has been answered with fewer places, which leaves the next rise nowhere to go.
July 2023: Strasbourg finds it systemic¶
On 18 July 2023 the European Court of Human Rights ruled in Camara v. Belgium that Belgium had violated the right to a fair trial by not carrying out a final Belgian court order to house an asylum seeker, and found a “systemic failure on the part of the Belgian authorities to execute final judicial decisions” concerning the reception of asylum seekers. The clerks note that a systemic failure is not one official’s lapse to correct but an arrangement the state keeps running.