Municipal Debt Recovery

The path from a domestic ruling to an ECHR verdict is defined by three thresholds: exhaustion, admissibility, and the four-month rule. Miss any of them and the case does not reach the merits. Meet all three and you have jurisdiction to argue Article 6 § 1 non-enforcement and Protocol 1 property.

Exhaustion means the domestic system has run its course — appeal routes closed, enforcement mechanisms attempted, no further internal recourse available. Admissibility is where the Court screens what it will hear: the applicant must have suffered a significant disadvantage, the complaint must be substantiated, and the rights invoked must actually be engaged.

Since Protocol No. 15 the limit is four months, not six — six survives only where the final domestic decision predates 1 February 2022. It is the hardest deadline in Convention practice: it runs from the final domestic decision, and the Court does not extend it. That single rule is why we tell creditors: once the domestic system says no, the Strasbourg clock is already ticking.