Bringing a case to the European Court of Human Rights - A practical guide on admissibility criteria

Product Description From Judge Egbert Myjer`s foreword: The European Court for Human Rights (ECHR) is overloaded with cases. The percentage of non-admissible cases currently amounts to a remarkable 90 percent. Even though it doesn’t always concern the most bulky files, every case has to be read, examined and judged. And that takes precious time. At an international level however, a discussion has been going on for a long time how to responsibly contain this constant flow of cases. In February 2010 the representatives of the Member States of the Council of Europe accepted an action plan, the Interlaken Declaration (19 February 2010) at the high level Interlaken conference. To execute this plan, the Court has taken a number of measures. From 13 December 2010 onwards, the text of the book that lies before you, the Practical Guide on Admissibility Criteria, is accessible on the Internet. It is a practical guide for everyone professionally concerned with ‘Strasbourg’; and for that reason it is advised to consult this guide in relevant cases. The importance of this guide is highlighted in the press release no 956 of 13 December 2010: Lawyer’s guide issued to stem flow of obviously inadmissible applications to European Court of Human Rights. In other words by president Jean-Paul Costa: ‘(..) Cases that have no chance of resulting in a ruling are flooding the Court. This handbook will enable lawyers to properly advise their clients on their chances of bringing an admissible case to the European Court of Human Rights. It will save them time, energy and unnecessary expense and it will free the Court to fulfil its vital role, judging serious and important cases to improve human rights protection for over 800 million people (..)’.