Winning Isn't Enough

Every legal team we work with has seen it. The domestic court rules for the creditor. The judgment is final. The champagne opens. Then the enforcement phase begins — and the debt sits unpaid for years.

This is the pattern the ECHR is designed to break. A ruling in Strasbourg is not just declaratory. It carries the Committee of Ministers' supervisory mandate over execution: the State is required to pay, and its compliance is monitored on the record. Reputationally, this is a different level of scrutiny than any domestic system provides.

For creditors, the lesson is operational. Do not stop when the domestic ruling arrives. Plan for the enforcement phase from day one, and be ready to move to Strasbourg the moment internal channels fail. That is when winning starts to mean getting paid.