Visit www.oplawyers.org We are standing at the European Court of Human Rights, sometimes called the Strasbourg Court. 47 judges sit here, one for each of the member states, from France to Turkey.
We’ve visited the court as part of a conference sponsored by The ERA, which is the Academy of European Law, or the L'Académie de Droit Européen. This conference allowed us to collaborate with other family law attorneys in reviewing recent case law that has come out of this court.
We are sharing information about this court with you because this court rules frequently on matters involving parental rights over children, adoptions, and cross border migration of families.
This court is oftentime a court of last refuge for individuals seeking justice when their legal rights are being violated by their government. This court is where individuals can bring claims against their European state authorities for violating their rights, such as their right to life, their freedom from tortorue, or their right to due process. Natalia has dealt with numerous cases involving the infringement of human rights, including the right to protection of family life protected by art. 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which embraces the rights of parents over their kids.
Officially established in 1959, this court has issued thousands of judgements and serves as an ultimate way of looking for justice in cases, where the governments or judicial systems failed to provide it in the first instance.
Although situated in Strasbourg this court is NOT an European Union institution, but an emanation of another international organization, called the Council of Europe. Therefore under its jurisdiction you can find such countries as all the members of the UE together with Turkey or Russia.
This court is NOT a court of appeal for the domestic tribunals, however, in order to get there with your individual case you should first seek justice for your case in the country and only then, when the judgement or other action was in breach of your human rights you can file a claim here.
The claims are to be filed within the fixed term of 6 months of exhausting the domestic remedies available under the domestic law. The proceedings are initiated by a claim filed to this Court on a special form and attaching the documents proving the claim. This part is particularly important and you should look for assistance from a competent lawyer on it - as almost 25% of the claims are struck off because of the forms being improperly completed.
The proceedings are written and when the court considers there is a possibility of breach of human rights the case is notified to the government. Only from there the case is being led in one of the official languages: English or French and only as of here you are obliged to have a lawyer.
The winning of the case against the State, means that the government is obliged to pay the winning party the just compensation and the costs as awarded by the Court.
Bringing the case to the court can also have an effect of changing the law and the practice in a particular country.
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