Case law
EHRM (HUDOC)
HUDOC is the public case-law database of the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. It holds judgments and decisions of the Grand Chamber, the Chambers and the Committees, communicated cases, advisory opinions and legal summaries, together with decisions and reports of the former European Commission of Human Rights and resolutions of the Committee of Ministers. This is not a Dutch court: the Court rules on whether a Contracting State has breached the Convention, not on whether a Dutch court applied national law correctly.
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What this source does not give you
The Court's official languages are English and French; only Grand Chamber judgments and texts selected for the Reports or as Key cases appear in both by default. Translations into other languages, Dutch included, are usually not produced by the Registry and are not checked for accuracy or linguistic quality. Decisions taken by a single judge are not published at all, and that is where the majority of applications end.
Frequently asked questions
- Is a European Court of Human Rights judgment binding on the Netherlands?
- Article 46 of the Convention provides that the Contracting Parties undertake to abide by the final judgment of the Court in any case to which they are parties. The final judgment is transmitted to the Committee of Ministers, which supervises its execution. The Court does not itself quash the national decision or substitute its own; it establishes the violation and may award just satisfaction. What follows in the domestic legal order runs through national law.
- Does HUDOC contain every Strasbourg decision?
- No. Decisions in cases disposed of by a single judge are not published. Committee decisions only appeared in HUDOC from April 2010 onwards, and decisions of the former European Commission of Human Rights predating 1960 exist only in hard copy in the Court's archives. For the cases that are published, the database holds not only judgments but also communicated cases, advisory opinions and legal summaries from the Case-Law Information Note.
- Can I rely on a Dutch translation of a judgment?
- Only the English and French texts are official. The Court also publishes translations into other languages, but states explicitly that these are as a rule not produced by the Registry and that the Registry does not check their accuracy or linguistic quality; they are provided for information only. The database may even hold more than one translation of the same judgment in a given language. Cite the official language version.
- When can a case be brought before the Court at all?
- Article 35 of the Convention provides that the Court may only deal with a matter after all domestic remedies have been exhausted, and within four months of the date on which the final domestic decision was taken. Anonymous applications, and applications substantially the same as a matter already examined by the Court or already submitted to another international procedure, are not dealt with.
- What else does HUDOC hold besides the Court's judgments?
- Besides judgments and decisions of the Grand Chamber, the Chambers and the Committees, HUDOC contains communicated cases, advisory opinions, legal summaries, the decisions and reports of the former European Commission of Human Rights, and the resolutions of the Committee of Ministers. There is also a separate collection of every press release issued by the Registry since 1 January 1999, in English and French.