2. Procedure of the formation and structure of the European Court of Human Rights. Election of judges, definition of ad hoc judge, terms of office.

The Convention established the European Court of Human Rights. Any person who feels his or her rights have been violated under the Convention by a state party can lodge an application with the Court. The number of judges in the Court is the same as that of the States Parties to the Convention (47 at present). The judges are elected by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe from lists of three candidates proposed by each State. They are elected for a non-renewable

term of nine years.

Although judges are elected in respect of a State, they hear cases as individuals and do not represent that State. They are totally independent and cannot engage in any activity that would be incompatible with their duty of independence and impartiality. «National judges» cannot sit in a

single-judge formation. In exceptional cases, they may be invited to sit in a Committee. However, the composition of the Court always includes the «national judge» when it hears cases as a seven-judge Chamber or a seventeen-judge Grand Chamber.

The Registry is the body of staff that provides the Court with legal and administrative support in its judicial work. It is made up of lawyers, administrative and technical staff and translators. The Court’s expenditure is borne by the Council of Europe, whose budget is financed by contributions

from member States in accordance with scales based on population and GDP. For 2010 the Court’s budget amounts to just over 58 million euros. It covers the salaries of judges and staff and the various overheads (IT, official travel, translation, interpreting, publications, representational

expenses, legal aid, fact-finding missions,etc.) [1].

Cases are heard by one of four main formations. Manifestly inadmissible applications are examined by a single judge. A three-judge Committee may rule by a unanimous vote on the admissibility and merits of cases that are already covered by well-established case-law of the Court.

An application may also be assigned to a seven-judge Chamber which rules by a majority vote, mostly on the admissibility and merits of a case.

Exceptionally, the Grand Chamber of 17 judges hears cases referred to it either after relinquishment of jurisdiction by a Chamber or when a request for referral has been accepted.

A Section is an administrative entity and a Chamber is a judicial formation of the Court within a given Section. The Court has five Sections in which Chambers are formed. Each Section has a President, a Vice-President and a number of other judges. A Chamber is composed of the President

of the Section to which the case was assigned, the «national judge» (the judge elected in respect of the State against which the application was lodged) and five other judges designated by the Section President in rotation. The Grand Chamber is made up of the Court’s President and Vice-Presidents, the Section Presidents and the national judge, together with other judges selected by drawing of lots. When it hears a case on referral, it does not include any judges who previously sat in the Chamber

which first examined the case.

The initiation of proceedings before the Grand Chamber takes two different forms: referral and relinquishment. After a Chamber judgment has been delivered, the parties may request referral of the case to the Grand Chamber and such requests are accepted on an exceptional basis. A panel

of judges of the Grand Chamber decides whether or not the case should be referred to the Grand Chamber for fresh consideration. Cases are also sent to the Grand Chamber when relinquished by a Chamber, although this is also exceptional. The Chamber to which a case is assigned can relinquish

it to the Grand Chamber if the case raises a serious question affecting the interpretation of the Convention or if there is a risk of inconsistency witha previous judgment of the Court .

Judges are in fact obliged to refrain from taking part in the consideration of a case when they have previously acted in that case in any capacity. This is called withdrawal. They are replaced in the proceedings by another judge and an ad hoc judge is appointed if it is the national judge who withdraws. An ad hoc judge is appointed by the government concerned when the national judge does not sit in the case because of inability, withdrawal or exemption.

The Court cannot take up cases of its own motion. It has jurisdiction to hear allegations of violations of the European Convention on Human Rights and does so on receiving individual or inter-State applications.

The Convention makes a distinction between two types of application: individual applications lodged by any person, group of individuals, company or NGO having a complaint about a violation of their rights, and inter-State applications brought by one State against another. Since the Court was established, almost all applications have been lodged by individuals who have brought their cases directly to the Court alleging one or more violations of the Convention.

Cases can only be brought against one or more States that have ratified the Convention. Any applications against third States or individuals, for example, will be declared inadmissible. Cases can be brought directly by individuals and the assistance of a lawyer is not necessary at the start

of the proceedings. It is sufficient to send the Court a duly completed application form with the requisite documents. However, the registration of an application by the Court is no guarantee that it will be admissible or successful on the merits. The Convention system provides for «easy»

access to the Court, enabling any individual to bring a case even if he or she lives in a remote region of a member State or is penniless. With this in mind, there are no fees for proceedings before the Court.

Most applications before the Court are individual applications lodged by private persons. A State may also lodge an application against another State Party to the Convention; this is called an inter-State application.

Legal representation is not indispensable at the start of proceedings; anyone can bring a case before the Court directly. The assistance of a lawyer becomes necessary, however, once the Court has given notice of the case to the respondent Government for their observations. Legal aid may be

granted to applicants, if necessary, from that stage in the proceedings. There is no list of authorised lawyers for the written or oral submissions to the Court. An applicant may be represented by anyone who is a lawyer qualified to practise in one of the States Parties to the Convention, or who

has been so authorised by the President of the Chamber.

There are two main stages in the consideration of cases brought before the Court: the admissibility stage and the merits stage (i.e. the examination of the complaints). The processing of an application also goes through different phases. A single-judge formation will declare an application inadmissible where inadmissibility is clear from the outset; its decisions cannot be appealed against. A Committee will give a final decision or judgment in a case which is covered by well-established case-law of the Court. A Chamber will give notice of the case to the respondent Government for their observations. Written observations are submitted by both parties. The Court then decides if it is appropriate to hold a public hearing in the case, but this remains exceptional in relation to the number of applications examined. Ultimately, the Chamber delivers a judgment that will become final only after the expiry of a three-month period during which the applicant or Government may request the referral of the case to the Grand Chamber for fresh consideration. If the request for referral is accepted by the panel of the Grand Chamber, the case will be reconsidered and a public hearing will be held if necessary. The Grand Chamber judgment will be final.

The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR; ) is a supra-national or international court established by the European Convention on Human Rights. It hears applications alleging that a contracting state has breached one or more of the human rights provisions concerning civil and political rights set out in the Convention and its protocols. An application can be lodged by an individual, a group of individuals or one or more of the other contracting states, and, besides judgements, the Court can also issue advisory opinions. The Convention was adopted within the context of the Council of Europe, and all of its 47 member states are contracting parties to the Convention. The Court is based in Strasbourg, France.