That seems sensible enough, but the commission's second recommendation is less persuasive. Noting that the compensation governments must pay successful applicants is notoriously low, the commission questions whether the court should have to work out how much to award in routine cases. Fine, but if there were fewer cases before the court then less time would be spent calculating compensation.

Next, the commission recommends that states should nominate better qualified people for appointment to the court. At the moment, one infers, some countries nominate judges on the basis of whom rather than what they know. The Council of Europe has set up a panel to consider nominees, but it turns out that there is not enough money to interview all candidates, a state of affairs that the commission rightly regards as indefensible. 

All these reforms, of course, would make it less likely that Britain would suffer adverse judgments in matters such as voting by prisoners. But only a cynic would suggest that this is one of its motives for recommending reform.