Don’t mess up your European Court of Human Rights application… a new rule

I don’t usually post about court procedure, but as any lawyer knows, a failure to comply with what may seem like boring  court rules can lead to a case being struck out before it even begins – this is what we in the trade call a “bad outcome”. In the UK context, see this terrifying recent Court of Appeal judgment. 

Well, the European Court of Human Rights will from 1 January 2014 be toughening up its procedure rules with a new Rule 47 of the Rules of Court. Essentially, if you don’t get the forms right and provide the required information, your case will be rejected outright. This is part of the strategy to minimise the court’s enormous caseload. The changes are summed up in this handy press release – key extracts below:

The first change concerns the information and documents supplied to the Court to enable it to examine applications and hence perform its mission as effectively as possible. Any form sent to the Court must in future be completed in full and accompanied by copies of the relevant documents. All incomplete applications will be rejected by the Court.

The second change concerns the interruption of the period within which an application must be made to the Court, that is, within six months from the final decision of the highest domestic court with jurisdiction; for the period to be interrupted, the application will now have to fulfil the conditions set out in Rule 47. The form must be sent to the Court, duly completed and accompanied by the relevant documents, within the period laid down by the Convention. Incomplete files will no longer be taken into consideration for the purpose of interrupting the running of the six-month period.

You have been warned!

And whilst I’m here, this afternoon you can watch a live hearing from Strasbourg (the Grand Chamber) in Hassan v. the United Kingdom, concerning territorial jurisdiction and the British armed forces in Iraq. Should be very interesting. Press release here.