The European Court of Human Rights was
set up at Strasbourg on 21 January 1959. The
number of judges of the Court is equal to that
of the members of the Council of Europe. The
Court’s formation should be reflective of the
contracting parties’ different legal systems. To
consider a case, the Court sits in single-judge
formation, in committees (consisting of three
judges), chambers of seven judges, and Grand
Chamber of seventeen judges. The state party’s
judge sits as an ex-officio member of the Court,
other judges are appointed by the President.
“The judges are elected by the Parliamentary
Assembly of the Council of Europe from lists of
three candidates proposed by each State. They
are elected for a non-renewable term of nine
years” (www.echr.coe.int). There is no bar on two
judges having the same nationality.