The ECtHR Workload Crisis – Protocols No. 14, 15 and 16

Due to the huge number of unmeritorious and repetitive cases and the gap between the incoming applications and the outgoing judgments of the Strasbourg Court, it ended up with a notorious backlog of 139,650 cases in 2010. This phenomenon has resulted in a significant threat to the right to individual petition, the main pillar of the ECHR system. It has adversely impacted the efficiency of the ECtHR in terms of dealing with cases and the effectiveness of human rights protection – a fact, which brought the Strasbourg mechanism to being called ‘a victim of its own success’. This occurrence incited the creation of Protocols No. 14, 15 and 16. This work explores how they aim to manage the increasing workload of the Strasbourg Court and its possibilities for 'constitutionalisation'.