Litigation before the European Court of Human Rights is a highly specialised field. The Court itself makes the point in its notice to applicants: more than 90% of the applications it examines are declared inadmissible. A case of real importance at national level may therefore never be examined on the merits in Strasbourg if it is not presented in accordance with the requirements of the Convention and of the procedure before the Court.
Strasbourg is not a further tier of appeal. The Court does not retry a dispute on the ground that a national decision was unfair or wrong. It reviews compliance with the rights guaranteed by the European Convention on Human Rights and its Protocols. Proceedings before the Court therefore call for a fresh reading of the file, from a perspective that is not that of domestic law.
Our expertise before the Court
Just Rights Europe is a law firm specialising in litigation before the European Court of Human Rights. We do not act at national level. Our work begins after the final decision of the highest competent national court — Court of Cassation, Council of State, Constitutional Court or their equivalent.
Our involvement covers the whole of the procedure:
- Admissibility analysis: exhaustion of effective domestic remedies (Article 35 § 1), compliance with the four-month time limit running from the final domestic decision, victim status (Article 34), no significant disadvantage, compatibility ratione materiae, personae, temporis and loci, the complaints having been raised, in substance, before the domestic courts.
- Identifying and framing the complaints: selecting the Articles of the Convention and of the Protocols that genuinely have a prospect of success, in the light of the Court's case-law.
- Drafting the application: strict compliance with the requirements of Rule 47 of the Rules of Court, failure to comply with which results in the application not being examined by the Court, unless the applicant provides an adequate explanation, the application concerns a request for an interim measure, or the Court otherwise directs; only a completed application form stops the running of the four-month time limit.
- Interim measures: requests under Rule 39 of the Rules of Court in situations of urgency (expulsion, extradition, risk to life or physical integrity).
- The adversarial stage: observations in reply to the respondent Government, further submissions in reply, the claim for just satisfaction (Article 41), hearings.
- Friendly settlements (Article 39 of the Convention) and unilateral declarations (Article 37 § 1 of the Convention and Rule 62A of the Rules of Court): negotiation and assessment of whether a settlement is appropriate in the light of the applicant's interests.
- Referral to the Grand Chamber at the request of a party (Article 43) and relinquishment of jurisdiction by a Chamber in favour of the Grand Chamber (Article 30), on which the parties are invited to submit observations — see our page on the Grand Chamber.
- Execution of judgments (Article 46): follow-up before the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe, communications under Rule 9 of the Rules of the Committee of Ministers, reopening of domestic proceedings.
Articles of the Convention
Our cases arise principally under the following provisions of the European Convention on Human Rights:
- Article 2 — Right to life, including the State's positive and procedural obligations (effective investigation)
- Article 3 — Prohibition of torture and of inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment; conditions of detention; removal to a country where there is a risk; the procedural limb
- Article 5 — Right to liberty and security; lawfulness of detention; judicial review; administrative detention of foreign nationals
- Article 6 — Right to a fair trial, in civil and criminal matters; access to a court; equality of arms; reasonable time; the giving of reasons for decisions; presumption of innocence and the rights of the defence
- Article 7 — No punishment without law; foreseeability of the criminal law; retrospective effect
- Article 8 — Right to respect for private and family life, home and correspondence; family reunification; removal of foreign nationals; data protection; the environment
- Article 9 — Freedom of thought, conscience and religion
- Article 10 — Freedom of expression; freedom of the press; whistle-blowers
- Article 11 — Freedom of assembly and association
- Article 13 — Right to an effective remedy, in conjunction with the other rights guaranteed
- Article 14 — Prohibition of discrimination in the enjoyment of the rights guaranteed, in conjunction with the other Articles and the Protocols
- Article 18 — Limitation on use of restrictions on rights; misuse of power
- Article 34 — Right of individual application; hindrance of the exercise of that right
Protocols to the Convention
The additional Protocols form an integral part of our practice. The norm-creating Protocols are frequently overlooked in applications, although they often provide the strongest legal basis for a complaint; Protocols Nos. 15 and 16, which confer no substantive right, govern procedure:
- Article 1 of Protocol No. 1 — Protection of property: expropriation, interference with the peaceful enjoyment of possessions, control of the use of property, taxation, legitimate expectation
- Article 2 of Protocol No. 1 — Right to education
- Article 3 of Protocol No. 1 — Right to free elections
- Article 2 of Protocol No. 4 — Freedom of movement
- Article 4 of Protocol No. 4 — Prohibition of collective expulsion of aliens
- Article 2 of Protocol No. 7 — Right of appeal in criminal matters
- Article 4 of Protocol No. 7 — Right not to be tried or punished twice (ne bis in idem), in particular where administrative and criminal penalties are combined
- Protocol No. 12 — General prohibition of discrimination, for the States that have ratified it
- Protocol No. 13 — Abolition of the death penalty in all circumstances
- Protocol No. 15 — Procedural reform: the four-month time limit, and the principle of subsidiarity and the margin of appreciation written into the Preamble
- Protocol No. 16 — Advisory opinions requested by the highest national courts, for the States that have ratified it
The applicability of each Protocol depends on the respondent State's ratifications. We check this as a matter of course from the initial analysis of the file.
A European practice
Since 1 September 2026 we have accepted cases brought against all the member States of the Council of Europe. An application directed against another State Party to the Convention calls for knowledge of that State's domestic remedies and of their effectiveness within the meaning of the Court's case-law; for that purpose we work with a network of fellow lawyers practising before the highest national courts.
Our responsibility
Not every case can succeed before the Court. Our responsibility is to distinguish the files that may justify an application to Strasbourg from those that face insurmountable obstacles. That exercise calls for as much rigour in the conduct of the case as candour in the advice given. Where a case has no real prospect in Strasbourg, we say so.
To consult the full text of the Convention and its Protocols, you may download the official document.
Download the Convention