AGLC4 Rule 14.3.2: European Court of Human Rights
Reported decisions of the European Court of Human Rights are cited by parties' names, year, volume, report series, starting page and pinpoint. Decisions to the end of 1995 are cited to Series A, which has no starting page; decisions from 1996 are cited to Reports of Judgments and Decisions with a volume and starting page. Decisions in neither are cited to an unofficial series such as EHRR, unreported decisions use a bracketed form with the chamber and application number, and pleadings in Series B have their own form.
AGLC4 page 202
Format
Quoted from the Guide, page 202A boxed element is filled in with the source's details; everything outside a box is written exactly as shown.
Formatting
- Parties' names are the applicant's surname, an italic v and the respondent state, all italic; only the first applicant or respondent is named.
- The respondent state is named as on the first page of the report, or by its usual short form where it is not given there, unless the full form is needed to avoid ambiguity.
- Where a case has several reported phases, the phase is added after the names in italics and italic round brackets.
- Series A (to the end of 1995): year in round brackets, Arabic volume, Eur Court HR (ser A), no starting page, then any page pinpoint.
- Where one Series A volume holds several decisions, the case letter is joined to the volume number by a hyphen.
- Reports of Judgments and Decisions (from 1996): year in square brackets, Roman numeral volume, Eur Court HR, starting page, comma, pinpoint.
- In Eur Court HR (ser A) the abbreviation ser is roman and lower case inside round brackets.
- Pinpoints follow rule 10.2.7 and judges follow rule 10.2.8, in round brackets after the pinpoint.
- Unreported decisions: italic parties' names, then round brackets holding European Court of Human Rights, the chamber (Grand Chamber or Chamber), Application No and the number, and the full date, separated by commas, then a paragraph pinpoint.
- Two application numbers joined by and take Application Nos.
- Series B pleadings: the document title roman in curly single quotation marks, a comma, the italic parties' names, the year in square brackets, Eur Court HR (ser B), the starting page, a comma and the pinpoint.
Examples
Quoted from the Guide, page 202- 28Boujlifa v France [1997] VI Eur Court HR 2250, 2264.
- 29The Observer v United Kingdom (1991) 216 Eur Court HR (ser A) 10–11. [Not: The Observer and The Guardian v United Kingdom …]
- 30Loizidou v Turkey (Preliminary Objections) (1995) 310 Eur Court HR (ser A).
- 31MSS v Belgium [2011] I Eur Court HR 255.
- 32Nasri v France (1995) 320-B Eur Court HR (ser A) 28 (Judge Pettiti).
- 33S v United Kingdom (European Court of Human Rights, Grand Chamber, Application Nos 30562/04 and 30566/04, 4 December 2008) [125].
- 34‘The Case of Gerard Richard Lawless — Memorial Submitted by the European Commission of Human Rights’, Lawless v Ireland [1960–61] Eur Court HR (ser B) 193, 201.
Not
Quoted from the Guide, page 202- The Observer and The Guardian v United Kingdom …only the first applicant is named
Forms in the rule
Quoted from the Guide, page 202- ‘(Preliminary Objections)’
- ‘(Revision)’
- ‘(Just Satisfaction)’
- ‘EHRR’
- ‘Eur Court HR (ser A)’
- ‘Eur Court HR’
- ‘Eur Court HR (ser B)’
Elements of a reported European Court of Human Rights decision, with two worked examples
Quoted from the Guide, page 202| Element | Example | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Parties’ Names | Wemhoff v Federal Republic of Germany | Bouchelkia v France |
| Year | (1968) | [1997] |
| Volume | 7 | I |
| Report Series | Eur Court HR (ser A) | Eur Court HR |
| Starting Page | 23 | 47 |
| Pinpoint | , 67 |
See also
Check your footnotes against these rules
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Formats, examples, passages, tables and the forms marked Not are quoted from the Australian Guide to Legal Citation (4th ed, Melbourne University Law Review Association, 2018), with the page of the Guide they appear on. Titles, summaries and explanations are our own.