WHAT DOES THE ECHR RULING MEAN?
The European court is a ‘subsidiary’ to national systems, not an alternative, meaning that national courts should determine human rights cases first.
This means that if an application is brought to the European court in Strasbourg, it should ‘have the benefit of the views of the national courts’, ECHR rules say.
The rule is intended to give national authorities, primarily the courts, the opportunity to ‘prevent or put right the alleged violations of the