Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights: A Practitioner’s Handbook
Rule 79 of the Rules of Court provides that parties may request the interpretation
of a judgment within one year of the delivery of that judgment. Furthermore, Rule
80 of the Rules of Court provides for situations in which a new fact is discovered: if
the fact by its nature might have a decisive influence on the Court’s deliberations, if
it was unknown to the Court at the time of delivery of its judgment, and if it could
not reasonably have been known to the party, that party may ask the Court to revise
the judgment. Requests of this nature must be made within a period of six months
after that party learned of the fact. They are, however, quite rare.
Finally, the Court may, of its own motion or at the request of a party made within
one month of the delivery of a decision or a judgment, rectify clerical errors, errors
in calculation, or obvious mistakes.265
2.1.23 Referral and Relinquishment to the Grand Chamber
After a Chamber issued a judgment, any party to the case may, in exceptional circumstances, request that the case be referred to the Grand Chamber. Pursuant to
Article 43 of the Convention, the parties can request such a referral within a period
of three months from the date of the judgment of the Chamber. It must be pointed
out that the judgments adopted by the Grand Chamber are final and cannot be
referred back to the Chamber.
A request for referral to the Grand Chamber will be examined by a panel of five
judges of the Grand Chamber and will only accept the request in the following
circumstances:
[I]f the case raises a serious issue affecting the interpretation or application of the
Convention or the protocols thereto, or a serious issue of general importance.266
The Panel of the Grand Chamber will be composed of the President of the
Court, two Presidents of Sections designated by rotation (to be replaced by the
Vice-Presidents of their Section if they are prevented from sitting), two judges
and two substitute judges. The substitute judges are designated by rotation
from among the judges elected by the remaining Sections to sit on the panel
for a period of six months (Rule 24 § 5 (a) of the Rules of Court). The Panel shall
not include any judge who took part in the consideration of the admissibility
or merits of the case in question or the judge elected in respect of, or who is
a national of, a Contracting Party concerned by a referral request (Rule 24 § 5
(b-c)). Any member of the Panel unable to sit for these reasons shall be replaced
by one of the substitute judges (Rule 24 § 5 (d)).
265 Rule 81 of the Rules of Court.
266 Article 43 § 2 of the Convention.
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