Information Note on the Court’s case-law No. 135
November 2010
Ahlskog v. Finland (dec.) - 5238/07
Decision 9.11.2010 [Section IV]
Article 35
Article 35-1
Exhaustion of domestic remedies
Effective domestic remedy
Complaint under Compensation for Excessive Duration of Judicial Proceedings Act: effective remedy
Facts – On 25 January 2007 the applicant lodged an application with the European Court in which he complained of the length of criminal proceedings that had been pending against him before the domestic courts since October 2000. On 1 January 2010 the State introduced new legislation – the Compensation for Excessive Duration of Judicial Proceedings Act no. 362/2009 – which provided a remedy for the excessive length of civil and criminal proceedings. The remedy was specifically designed to accelerate such proceedings and to afford compensation for any damage incurred.
Law – Article 35 § 1: The Government raised a preliminary objection that the applicant had failed to exhaust the new remedy. In view of the wording of the new legislation and recent decisions of the domestic courts that indicated that they were awarding relief of a compensatory nature under the Act, the Court was satisfied that the new remedy was effective in the sense that it was capable of providing adequate redress for the excessive length of proceedings in civil and criminal cases, provided that the impugned proceedings were still pending. Following its approach in Italian, Croatian, Slovak and Polish length-of-proceedings cases and taking into account the purpose and nature of the remedy, as well as the principle of subsidiarity, the applicant was instructed to exhaust the new remedy despite the fact that he had lodged his case with the Court prior to the remedy’s introduction.
Conclusion: inadmissible (failure to exhaust domestic remedies).
© Council of Europe/European Court of Human Rights
This summary by the Registry does not bind the Court.
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