Identify the applicant and respondent state
Record the applicant's identity, direct and personal effect of the alleged violation and the public authority or judicial process involved. The Court does not determine ordinary disputes between private parties unless state responsibility is properly engaged.
Identify every applicant separately and avoid assuming that a relative, company director or representative automatically has victim status.
Define the Convention complaint
For each complaint, identify the Convention right, material facts, state act or omission and the resulting interference or procedural failure. Avoid presenting every domestic legal error as a Convention violation.
Use current HUDOC material to understand the relevant principles, but do not copy quotations or case names without checking their context and applicability.
Create a complete factual chronology
List the events and domestic proceedings in date order, including applications, hearings, decisions, service and enforcement. Keep the facts concise enough to fit the official form while preserving the points needed to understand the complaint.
Distinguish proven dates from estimates and retain the documents that support each important event.
Map domestic remedies
For each complaint, record the domestic remedy used, court or authority, case number, arguments raised, decision and date. Explain why the final decision exhausted an effective remedy or why a particular remedy was not effective or available.
The Court generally expects the substance of the Convention complaint to have been raised domestically. Do not assume that using one remedy exhausts all complaints in the application.
Verify the four-month period
Identify the final domestic decision relevant to each complaint and the date from which the current time limit runs. Use the actual decision and service information and obtain specialist assistance where the calculation is uncertain.
Preparing material online does not interrupt the time limit. Check the Court's current instructions for a complete application and dispatch.
Use the current official form
Download the current application form and instructions from the Court. Complete every required field, sign where required and follow the current Rule 47 requirements.
Supporting text can help organise facts and complaints but is not a substitute for a properly completed official form. Do not send an outdated or unofficial reproduction.
Prepare decisions and annexes
Create a chronological list of domestic decisions and supporting documents. Use continuous, legible pagination and identify the document referred to in each part of the form.
Include the decisions necessary to demonstrate exhaustion and the complaint. Avoid sending originals unless the Court's current instructions require them.
Final admissibility and dispatch review
Check victim status, jurisdiction, relevant dates, exhaustion, duplication of proceedings, signature, form completeness and annex references. Remove complaints that cannot be supported by facts and domestic material.
Verify the current postal address and dispatch requirements directly on the Court's website. Keep a complete copy and reliable evidence of dispatch.
Frequently asked questions
Is the ECtHR another appeal court?
No. It examines alleged violations of Convention rights by a respondent state subject to its jurisdiction and admissibility rules.
Does a draft stop the four-month time limit?
No. Verify the current requirements for submitting a complete application to the Court.
Can I use my own form?
Use the current official form and instructions available from the Court.
Must the Convention point have been raised domestically?
The substance normally needs to have been presented through effective domestic remedies, subject to the admissibility principles.
Should I send every document from the national case?
Send the decisions and supporting material necessary for the application, organised according to the current instructions.
Prepare before acting
- current official application form
- applicant and representative details
- Convention complaints
- dated factual chronology
- domestic remedies for each complaint
- final decisions
- four-month calculation
- continuous annex numbering
- signatures
- dispatch evidence
Legal and procedural foundation
- Apply to the European Court of Human Rights
- Rules of Court
- HUDOC case-law database
Forms, deadlines, fees, filing and service requirements must be checked against the current official material and the circumstances of the particular matter.
Verify the current position
Links lead to the material used to structure this publication.