2. Other developments and measures to overcome the crisis Reforms aside, the Committee of Ministers has consistently recognized the need to improve human rights protection with the help of the ECtHR. Shortly after Protocol 14, the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe recalled "its mission to take measures to ensure the long-term effectiveness of the control system established by the Convention (Council of Europe 2004)". This section will highlight some of the steps taken and the issues that remain problematic. We begin with a more general debate on both the nature and purpose of the European human rights system: as request overload is still a major problem, a mechanism has been introduced to avoid the case-by-case approach established so far and instead leave be pilot sentences to deal with repetitive cases, thus conceiving the Court as a constitutional court. In this way the Court avoids the backlog of thousands of cases which in reality can all be traced back to the same structural problem and instead identifies selected cases (Buyse 2009). The main objective is to reduce the workload of the Court, firstly by directly requiring resolution of all comparable cases in the respondent State and secondly indirectly as this will ultimately lead to national reform (O'Boyle, 2011). Furthermore, by focusing on pilot judgments, it is supposed to enunciate the general principles of human rights law, arguing that the main role of the Court is to establish European standards, “constitutionalizing the protection of human rights under its jurisdiction” (Oppedal 2011: 94). )“. Prof. Rick Lawson enters the heart of the debate when he supports the position of the Constitutional Court, arguing that "the Court... middle of paper... Pilot sentencing procedure addressing systemic human rights issues, University of Bergen, Department of Comparative Politics, Master ThesisO'Boyle, Michael (2011) 'The Future of the European Court of Human Rights', German Law Journal, 12, 10, pp. 1862-1877 future between the European Court of Justice and the European Court of Human Rights: a functional analysis, University of Chicago Rainey, Bernadette (2012) Human Rights Law, Oxford, Oxford University Press, chap. 2, pp .Sepúlveda, M. et al (2004) Human Rights Reference Manual, Costa Rica, University of Peace, Part II, 'The Council of Europe', pp. 125-144 Keller (2008) 'Assessing the Impact of the ECHR on National Legal Systems' Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 33. Accessed from: http://works.bepress.com/alec_stone_sweet/32