ECtHR Applications – Shorter Time Bar Underway

Old habits die hard. Ask any human rights lawyer the time bar for ECtHR application from exhaustion of domestic legal remedies, "6 months" they would retort before you hardly finish your question. That is destined to change soon.

With the introduction of the Protocol No. 15 to the European Convention of Human Rights (the "Convention"), the six-month period to lodge an individual application to the European Court of Human Rights (the "Court") was reduced to four months. There has since been considerable hesitation among the legal community on whether it already went into effect, and if not when it will. Before anyone's blood pressure suddenly drops, let us say that as at the date of this article, the amendment is yet to enter into force, awaiting ratification by a handful of remaining Contracting Parties. Your six-month period is intact, at least for now.