These notes concern the European dimension of cases decided by the Luxembourg courts. Luxembourg has been bound by the European Convention on Human Rights since its entry into force on 3 September 1953, and has ratified Protocol No. 1, which protects the peaceful enjoyment of possessions.
As a member State of the European Union, Luxembourg is also subject to EU law and to the Court of Justice. These notes concern the other European system: the Convention, compliance with which is reviewed by the European Court of Human Rights.
Just Rights Europe does not replace Luxembourg counsel in conducting the domestic proceedings; it works on the Convention dimension alone, in cases that have reached the highest domestic level.
In 2025 the European Court closed 8,300 files before allocating them to a judicial formation and declared 74.1% of the applications it disposed of judicially inadmissible. Strasbourg procedure cannot be separated from legal strategy.
A final Luxembourg judgment does not always close the case. Whether the proceedings involved an arguable Convention violation is a different question from domestic error, and the four-month time limit leaves little time to ask it.
A confiscation order valid under domestic criminal law can still require scrutiny under Article 8. In Luxembourg, the appeal judges tested legal basis, legitimate aim and necessity, and the Cour de cassation endorsed their analysis.
An appeal against the enforcement in Luxembourg of Azerbaijani confiscation orders was declared inadmissible because it was sent by ordinary mail. The Cour de cassation found no excessive formalism, but a filing formality can decide access to appellate review.
A disagreement with how national judges weighed the evidence is not, by itself, an Article 6 complaint. Two Luxembourg cassation judgments of 8 May 2025 show why the Convention issue must be identified and framed precisely.
These notes are general information on Convention law; they do not constitute legal advice and do not create a lawyer-client relationship.
After the final decision of the highest national court, a case may be submitted to us directly, by the client or by national counsel.