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Constitutional Court and ECtHR Individual Applications

Admissibility, time limits, exhaustion of domestic remedies and the stages of individual applications to the Turkish Constitutional Court and the ECtHR.

ABOUT THIS FIELD

Individual applications to the Constitutional Court and the European Court of Human Rights are subsidiary review mechanisms available to persons alleging that public power has violated their fundamental rights. Admissibility depends on exhaustion of domestic remedies, compliance with time limits, victim status and the claim not being manifestly ill-founded.

Applications to the Constitutional Court and the European Court of Human Rights differ in jurisdiction, time limits and admissibility requirements. In the application form, the applicant must clearly identify the act of a public authority alleged to have caused the violation, the right affected, the domestic remedies exhausted and the relevant dates.

PROCESS AND TIME LIMITS

Time limits

An individual application to the Turkish Constitutional Court must be lodged within thirty days of the exhaustion of remedies or, where no remedy is provided, of learning of the violation (Law No. 6216, Art. 47/5). The time limit for applying to the European Court of Human Rights is four months from the final domestic decision (Convention, Art. 35 § 1).

Calculate the last day

Exhaustion of domestic remedies

Before applying to the Constitutional Court, the administrative and judicial remedies provided by law must be exhausted. The ECtHR generally regards an individual application to the Turkish Constitutional Court as an effective domestic remedy; in most cases, therefore, the Constitutional Court must be applied to before the ECtHR.

Stages of the application

An application to the Constitutional Court may be lodged directly or through the courts or Turkish missions abroad. It is first examined for admissibility by the Commissions and then on the merits by the Sections. Where a violation is found, redress such as a retrial or compensation may be ordered. Before the ECtHR, the application is lodged with a fully completed application form and its annexes. It is examined by a single judge, a committee or a chamber; where an application is communicated to the Government, the parties submit observations. The Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe supervises the execution of judgments.

Language of the application

An application to the ECtHR may be lodged in Turkish. Once the application has been communicated to the Government, correspondence is as a rule conducted in English or French, the Court’s official languages. The office can work in English and French at that stage.

Interim measures

Where there is a serious risk of irreparable harm to life or physical integrity, interim measures may be requested under Article 73 of the Rules of Court of the Constitutional Court and Rule 39 of the Rules of Court of the ECtHR.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Which documents are needed for an application to the Constitutional Court?

The form is accompanied by a document showing the date on which the final decision became known, the fee receipt, a power of attorney if a lawyer is instructed, and a certified copy of an identity document if the applicant applies in person. The applicant also encloses the decisions complained of and documents showing that remedies were exhausted (Rules of Court of the Constitutional Court, Rule 59/3).

Can an application form be sent to the ECtHR by e-mail?

No. An application to the ECtHR is made by sending the original signed form by post; a faxed form is not a complete application. The postmark determines the date of introduction (Rules of Court of the ECtHR, Rule 47 § 6).

DOCUMENTS

The following documents are usually used when a file in this field is reviewed:

  • First-instance, regional appeal and cassation decisions
  • Notification of the final decision or the UYAP record of when it was read
  • Petitions in which the complaint was raised before the lower courts
  • The Constitutional Court's decision and its notification (for the ECtHR stage)
  • Power of attorney and identity document
  • Records, reports and other evidence showing the violation
SCOPE

Principal areas of work

  1. 01

    Classifying the alleged violation under constitutional and Convention rights

  2. 02

    Identifying effective domestic remedies and the date on which they were exhausted

  3. 03

    Preparing the Constitutional Court application form, statement of facts and legal grounds

  4. 04

    Preparing the European Court of Human Rights application form and supporting documents

  5. 05

    Determining the application time limit separately for the Constitutional Court and the European Court of Human Rights

  6. 06

    Reviewing victim status, the significant-disadvantage criterion before the European Court of Human Rights, and other admissibility requirements specific to each court

  7. 07

    Interim-measure requests and urgent applications concerning life and physical integrity

  8. 08

    Submitting observations on communications at the admissibility and merits stages

  9. 09

    Remedies and implementation procedures following a finding of a violation