The European Convention on Human Rights and the Rule of Prior Exhaustion of Domestic Remedies in International Law

The article analyses the application of the rule on exhaustion of internal remedies by the European Court of Human Rights in the light of general norms of international law. Even though general norms dealing with the said rule have been moving forward in this field, thanks to the drawing up of written sources especially on diplomatic protection, it may be argued that human rights doctrine has actually influenced the general norms to a significant extent. Nevertheless, starting from the peculiarities of the application of the rule on exhaustion of internal remedies by the European Court, the article tries to assess whether the latter, which is still required by Article 35 paragraph 1 of the European Convention on Human Rights to apply the rule “according to the generally recognised rules of international law”, is actually in line with the general norms.