The European Court of Human Rights, which is part of the Council of Europe, deals with complaints brought by individuals or by contracting states against another state under the European Convention on Human Rights 1950 (ECHR).
Until 1999 the Court shared the responsibility of dealing with complaints with the European Commission of Human Rights and the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe. This process was simplified in 1999 by Protocol 11, which allowed individuals to bring actions directly before the Court.
Because many of the parties involved are either anonymous (usually identified by an initial letter) or governments it is often vital to know the application number of the case to identify it.
The official text of judgments and decisions appeared as Publications of the European Court of Human Rights from 1960 to 1996 in two series: Series A, Judgments and decisions, and Series B: Pleadings, oral arguments and documents. In both series each volume is normally devoted to one or two cases. Cases are cited in the format
Ireland v. United Kingdom, ECHR (1978) Series A, No. 25, 90
In 1996 these were replaced by a single series: Reports of judgments and decisions (abbreviated as DR from the French title, Décisions et rapports) Cases are cited in the format:
W. v. United Kingdom (1983), DR 32, 190, 192 orApplication 5935/72 v. FRG, DR 39, 46
The Yearbook of the European Convention on Human Rights, published since 1958, contains summaries of the decisions and judgments of the European Commission and European Court of Human Rights as well as relevant decisions of the Committee of Ministers; e.g. Austria v. Italy, YB 4, 116, 140
Case-Law Information Notes are monthly summaries of cases considered to be of particular interest. Notes from 1998 onwards are available online. Earlier notes can be found via HUDOC – see the guide for more details.
Searching online
The European Court of Human Rights website incorporates HUDOC, a database of the official text of the Court’s judgments since 1959. To access the database, click on the HUDOC link to search the online database (in English or French)
BAILII (British and Irish Legal Information Institute) contains all judgments of the ECHR since 1960, except for some which are only available in French.