EUROPEAN COURT OF HUMAN RIGHTS IN ACTION / Alla Tymofeyeva (ed.)

3.5.4 ratione materiae Incompatibility ratione materiae. According to Article 32 of the Convention, the jurisdiction of the Court extends only to matters concerning the interpretation and application of the Convention and the Protocols thereto. This means that a right that lies outside of this scope is not protected by the European Convention and the Court has no jurisdiction to examine these submissions. The Convention, inter alia , does not guarantee a right to asylum ( Chahal v. the United Kingdom ), a right to work ( Chen v. the Netherlands ), or a right to divorce ( Johnston and Others v. Ireland ). 3.6 Non-exhaustion of all domestic remedies In accordance with the generally recognised rules of international law an applicant must have used all the remedies in the State concerned that might have been able to redress the situation the applicant is complaining about. Usually this will mean that a person should file an application to the appropriate court followed by an appeal, where applicable, and a further appeal to a higher court such as the Supreme Court. In some countries such as the Czech Republic, for example, the role of the highest court is fulfilled by a constitutional court. In addition, if the legislation of the State concerned proposes more than one potentially effective remedy then the applicant is only required to have used one of them (for example, see the cases Moreira Barbosa v. Portugal and Karakó v. Hungary ). The practice of the Court establishes that it is not enough merely to make use of these remedies. In so doing, an applicant must also have actually raised his or her complaints before the national courts. 3.7 Four months (former six-month rule) Protocol No. 15 to the Convention will enter into force on 1 August 2021. Article 4 of this Protocol reads as follows: “In Article 35, paragraph 1 of the Convention, the words “within a period of six months” shall be replaced by the words “within a period of four months”. In accordance with Article 35 § 1 of the ECHR, as of 1 August 2021 the Court may deal with an application only if it was submitted within a period of four months from the date on which the final decision was taken. This regulation in the case law of the Court was known as the “six-month rule” and will now probably be known as the “four-month rule”. The date of the final decision is not necessarily the day of announcement of the judgment, but the day when the applicant became aware of it ( Şahmo v. Turkey ). If an applicant applies to the Court then the four-month time limit stops from the date of the first communication to the Convention body regarding the subject of the alleged infringement of human rights. Before primary introduction of an application could be made in the form of a simple letter or even a postcard but fax messages or emails are not accepted ( Kemevuako v. the Netherlands ). Currently, the Court requires a submission of the application form (always the last version), which can be found on the web pages of the ECtHR. See https://www.echr.coe.int/Pages/ home.aspx?p=applicants/forms&c. The ECtHR words that the form will work correctly only with Adobe Reader 9 upwards and is only supported under the Windows and Mac OS X operating systems. The applicants should save a copy of the form, fill in the form and save it again. Once the form is completed, it should be printed, signed and posted to the Court. No fax or e-mail applications are acceptable.

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EUROPEAN COURT OF HUMAN RIGHTS IN ACTION