Review article
THE ANALYSIS OF THE CROATIAN SYSTEM OF FREE LEGAL AID IN CIVIL MATTERS IN THE LIGHT OF THE UP-TO-DATE CASE LAW OF THE EUROPEAN COURT OF HUMAN RIGHTS
Zvonimir Jelinić
; Pravni fakultet Sveučilišta J. Jurja Strossmayera u Osijeku
Katarina Knol Radoja
; Pravni fakultet Sveučilišta J. Jurja Strossmayera u Osijeku
Abstract
Access to justice and realization of the right to judicial redress may be often called into the question if citizens, regardless of their financial situation, have to bear all the costs concerning their access to courts and subsequent litigation. Although the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms does not explicitly mention the right to free legal assistance in civil matters, extensive elaboration of the concept of the right to a fair trial under Art.
6 of the Convention has resulted in an interpretation that the right to a court presents the central element of Art. 6 (1). It includes not only the right to effective access to courts, but under certain conditions the right to free legal aid as well. Given that the findings in the Court's judgments compel the States to sanction violations of the rights provided by the Convention, in modern times most of the States contracting parties to the Convention had provided and developed opportunities for people of poor economic status in order to enable them to achieve some form of legal assistance, either in the form of free legal advice, representation before the court or exemption from payment of court fees and other expenses which usually relate to court proceedings.
The trend of regulation of the right to free legal assistance through special laws in Europe was duly followed by the Republic of Croatia. In the National Programme for Croatia's Accession to the EU, one of the steps in the reform of the judiciary and a short-term priority which Croatia needed to complete was delivery of the special free legal aid act in civil matters.
In this paper the authors analyze if Croatian current legal framework for free legal aid in civil cases supports the findings of the European Court of Human Rights. The key consideration deals with the question whether the 2013 Free Legal Aid Act substantially supports the findings from the most relevant judgments of the European Court of Human Rights in the field of legal aid. In a given context, the authors deal with various matters; the issue of financial criterion as a prerequisite for granting free legal assistance, the issues related to the procedures of legal aid application and appointment of a legal aid lawyer, the merits of the case issue, the issue of effectiveness of free legal asistance, the issue of reimbursment of litigation costs etc. At the very end, the authors consider if the current system of legal aid in civil matters in Croatia is governed in a satisfactory manner and if it functionally responds to the ever larger citizens' needs.
Keywords
the right to access courts; legal aid; the European Court of Human Rights; Free Legal Aid Act
Hrčak ID:
130910
URI
Publication date:
30.8.2014.
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