PART 1: Overview of the Concil of Europe, the Convention and the Court The Rules of Court are prepared by the Court and they enter into force after their adoption by the Plenary Court. The Rules of Court that are in force at the time of writing entered into force on 1 July 2014. It must be noted that the Rules of Court are continually revised in the light of the Court’s evolving practice. 1.5.4 Practice Directions The President of the Court has the power to issue practice directions that supplement the Rules of Court.38 They are described by the Registry of the Court as documents to provide guidance to the parties on various aspects of their contacts with the Court and at the same time to introduce more standardised procedures with a view to facilitating the Court’s processing of the cases. Observance by applicants and their legal representatives of the practice directions will speed up the examination of their applications by avoiding unnecessary and time consuming correspondence with the Court and will prevent an application from being rejected for failure to comply with procedural requirements.39 To date, six practice directions have been issued. They are: a. the practice direction on “Institution of Proceedings”; b. the practice direction on “Requests for Interim Measures”; c. the practice direction on “Just Satisfaction Claims”; d. the practice direction on “Requests for Anonymity”; e. the practice direction on “Secured Electronic Filing”; and f. the practice direction on “Written Pleadings” 1.5.5 Decisions of the Commission and Decisions and Judgments of the Court40 Although there is not a formal doctrine of precedent within the Convention system and the Court does not see itself bound by previous judgments, the Court stated that “it is in the interests of legal certainty, foreseeability and equality before the law that it should not depart, without good reason, from precedents laid down in previous cases.”41 Thus, the Court’s cases possess strong authoritative power. The development of the Court’s case law has parallels with the development of the common law in Anglo-Saxon legal systems; in formulating its judgments, the Court – very much like a court in a common law system – reviews its previous 38 39 40 41 Rule 32 of the Rules of Court. The practice directions are available on the Council of Europe’s Web site at: http://www.echr.coe. int/Pages/home.aspx?p=basictexts/rules&c=#n1347875693676_pointer (last visited 23 July 2014). Although, strictly speaking, decisions and judgments are not “Instruments of the Court”, it is appropriate to deal with them in this subsection. Beard v. the United Kingdom [GC], no. 24882/94, 18 January 2001, § 81. 31