The European Court of Human Rights

The court of the Council of Europe, in Strasbourg. It does not retry the case and does not set aside any national decision: it finds a violation of the Convention.

In brief

Established by the European Convention on Human Rights, signed in Rome on 4 November 1950. Court set up in 1959.
Since Protocol No. 11 (1^st November 1998), the Court has been single and permanent, and cases can be brought before it directly by an individual (Art. 34).
Admissibility: exhaustion of domestic remedies and application within 4 months of the final domestic decision (time limit reduced from 6 to 4 months, applicable since 1^st February 2022).
⚠️ The Court is not an appeal court: it can neither annul nor reverse a national judgment.
It may award just satisfaction (Art. 41). The execution of its judgments is supervised by the Committee of Ministers.

The distinction is crucial, and constantly misunderstood: winning in Strasbourg does not overturn the French decision. The Court states that the State has violated the Convention; it may order the State to pay compensation; it does not rewrite the judgment.

Bringing a case before it requires having exhausted domestic remedies — in France, up to and including the appeal to the Court of Cassation. It is a narrow door, which opens late, and often years after the events.

The McLibel case ended before it: on 15 February 2005, the Court held that the United Kingdom had violated Article 6 § 1 — because the two defendants, ineligible for legal aid, had had to defend themselves alone against a multinational's lawyers — and Article 10 on freedom of expression.

The European Court of Human Rights

Sources

Where this comes up in the case file

Other glossary entries — Institutions