Unfinished business: concurrence of claims presented before a human rights court or treaty body and through diplomatic protection

International law has not, yet, defined the limits of concurrent cases involving resort to a human rights mechanism and diplomatic protection. The European Court of Human Rights has on occasion dealt with questions of simultaneous procedures and the International Law Commission (ILC) has described the relation of diplomatic protection to other mechanisms in international law. Even so, the question has not been answered clearly. The present article offers an analysis of the relevant case law and ILC documents, showing the importance of having regard to the facts of the particular case rather than just considering whether a settlement has been reached.