20
GUZZARDI v. ITALY JUDGMENT
par. 160), a characterisation in law different from that given to them by the
applicant.
Seen in an overall context, the material submitted to the Commission and
the Court clearly shows that the present case raises an issue under Article 5
(art. 5).
B. The objection of non-exhaustion of domestic remedies
64. The Government further pleaded that the applicant did not exhaust
his domestic remedies. Their preliminary objection was based on Article 26
(art. 26) of the Convention and was divided into two branches.
65. The first branch, which related to the 1975 proceedings that
terminated in the Court of Cassation (see paragraphs 12 to 19 above), may
be summarised as follows. Never at any relevant moment had Mr. Guzzardi
invoked, even in substance, the right embodied in Article 5 (art. 5) of the
Convention. He had in no way claimed to be deprived, in practice, of his
liberty at Cala Reale; the Commission had erred in affirming the contrary
when it ruled on the admissibility of his complaints. Furthermore, the
procedure laid down by section 4 of the 1956 Act was concerned solely with
the lawfulness of the compulsory residence order, whereas the settling of the
arrangements for implementing the order was a matter for discretionary
administrative decisions and hence fell outside the jurisdiction of the courts.
This was so, for example, as regards the designation of the district where the
person was to reside: the court merely "took formal notice" of the place
"specified" by the administrative authority and, subject where necessary to a
review of lawfulness, "recorded" the latter’s choice. This, so the
Government maintained, was precisely what occurred in the present case.
66. The second branch of the objection concerned the transfer request
made on 14 November 1975 (see paragraph 20 above) and was formulated
in the following way. Although admittedly directed towards eliminating the
violation complained of, the transfer request was still pending when, barely
three days after making it, Mr. Guzzardi applied to the Commission. In
addition, the request was addressed to another authority lacking jurisdiction,
namely the Milan Regional Court: in fact it declared itself to be without
jurisdiction on 20 January 1976 whilst at the same time directing that the
text of its decision be communicated to the Minister of the Interior and the
Sassari Chief of Police. With regard to his living conditions on the island, in
particular the limited space available, Mr. Guzzardi had not exercised any
remedy either before the competent administrative authorities or, in the
event of his representations being rejected, before a court - whether ordinary
or administrative - in pursuance of Article 113 of the Constitution.
67. The Court will take cognisance of preliminary pleas of this kind
insofar as the respondent State may have first raised them before the
Commission, in principle at the stage of the initial examination of