The entry into force of Protocol No. 14 and the new rules of procedure for its application

The entry into force of Protocol No. 14 to the ECHR on June, 1st 2010 has been accompanied by the adoption of a new edition of the Rules of Court which includes the amendments recently approved by the Plenary of the Court in order to take into account the procedural changed brought about by Protocol No. 14 (and before that by Protocol No. 14- bis). The article analyses how the Rules of Court have implemented (and complemented) the new provisions of the Convention, focussing in particular on the role of the Registry’s lawyers in the Court’s decision-making process (especially in cases where an application is judged to be inadmissible without further examination by a Committee of three judges or by a single judge), on the establishment of the single judge for the filtering of manifestly inadmissible applications, on the new procedure for the appointment of ad hoc judges, on the competence of the Committee of three judges to adopt a judgment on the merits when the decision can be taken on the basis of a well-established case-law, on the joint procedure of examination of admissibility and merits, on the new priority order for dealing with individual applications, and on the two new procedures that the Committee of Ministers is empowered to initiate when performing its task of supervising the execution of the Court’s judgments. Conclusively, the author raises a series of concerns regarding the potential impact of the new measures on the effective exercise of the right of access to the Court by individual applicants, which carries the risk of weakening its authority and credibility as a human rights guarantor in the name of increasing its efficiency and decision-making capacity.

Andrea Saccucci, L’entrata in vigore del Protocollo n. 14 e le nuove regole procedurali per la sua applicazione in "DIRITTI UMANI E DIRITTO INTERNAZIONALE" 2/2010, pp 319-343, DOI: 10.3280/DUDI2010-002005