>the EU itself is legally bound to follow the ECHR rulings You'd think so, but it actually isn't. All of the EU's member states are, but the EU and its institu

>the EU itself is legally bound to follow the ECHR rulings You'd think so, but it actually isn't. All of the EU's member states are, but the EU and its institutions aren't. The EU is legally bound to join the Council of Europe (and thus come under the jurisdiction of the ECHR), except the EU's Court of Justice threw a spanner in the works quite a while ago and this is on hold, pretty much indefinitely. The conflict is that the CJEU is supposed to be the authoritative interpreter of EU law, but if the EU joins the CoE then the ECHR could also rule on matters of EU law, potentially binding the CJEU, and it doesn't like that very much.