CYIL 2012

ADMISSIBILITY CRITERIA FOR LODGING AN APPLICATION WITH THE ECHR… According to the Court’s statistics, however, from 90% 5 to more than 95 % 6 of the applications lodged with it are rejected without being examined on the merits due to the fact that they do not satisfy the criteria of admissibility laid down by the European Convention. These shocking figures lead me to the idea that it is of crucial importance to explain to persons who would like to submit their complaints to the Court exactly what the main criteria are on which the European Court bases its analysis of the applications. This would give an applicant a basic understanding of why his or her application could be declared inadmissible. The Court made a big step forward in making its case-law more accessible and understandable for non-specialists by introducing the Practical guide on admissibility criteria in 2009. This document is the basis of this article. Nevertheless, taking into account the length and the language of the mentioned guide, it seems that for an individual without a law degree it could still be quite confusing. In the view of above mentioned, this article will focus on a comprehensive explanation of the main admissibility criteria which must be met in order for your application lodged with the Court to be successful. If your application does not satisfy the requirements set forth there, it would be better not to send it to the Court, thus saving your and the Registry of the European Court’s time. The criteria of admissibility (or reasons of inadmissibility) will be presented here, taking into account their importance and the way of applicability. We can say that there exists a so-called “hierarchy” of the grounds of inadmissibility of an application. This means that the analysis of admissibility of a claim has a certain sequence. Study of the Convention and the Court’s case law allows one to conclude that there are nine main groups regarding the arguments for an application’s inadmissibility. The application will be rejected by the Court without being examined on the merits if it: 1) is anonymous; 2) is an abuse of the right of an individual application; 3) is substantially the same as a matter that has already been examined by the Court; 4) has already been submitted to another procedure of international investigation or settlement and contains no relevant new information; 5) is incompatible with the provisions of the Convention and/or the Protocols thereto; 6) is a case when not all required domestic remedies have been exhausted; 7) was not lodged with the Court within a period of six months from the date on which the final decision was taken; 8) is manifestly ill-founded; or 5 Data from the Filtering Section speeds up processing of cases from the highest case-count countries. Available at http://www.echr.coe.int/NR/rdonlyres/F484672E-0C6A-4815-9449-44157ED9C89C/0/ Bilan_filtrage_EN.pdf. 6 Practical Guide on Admissibility Criteria. Available at http://www.echr.coe.int/NR/rdonlyres/ B5358231-79EF-4767-975F-524E0DCF2FBA/0/ENG_Guide_pratique.pdf.

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