SOME ISSUES CONCERNING THE PRINCIPLE OF REASONABLE TIME IN BANKRUPTCY PROCEEDINGS

Abstract

Professor Aldo Radolović, Ph. D., in the Collected Papers of the Law Faculty of the University of Rijeka, in 2008 published an article titled "Protecting the Right to a Trial within the Reasonable Time - Real Opportunity, Overwhelming Adventure or Utopia?" pointing out already in the first sentence that it is one of the "most important and most interesting legal issues". Almost ten years after the issues of a reasonable time are still at the very top of the list of legal-political priorities of judicial reform. In this paper the authors are dealing with the analysis of two issues that we have connected in a single entity through the argumentation. Namely, in the event that the case has not been resolved within the time limit set by the President of the Court on
the basis of the request for protection of the right to a trial within a reasonable time, a claim may be submitted to higher court seeking the payment of just compensation for violation of the right to a trial within a reasonable time. On the other hand, the European Court for Human Rights stated that the applicability of Article 6, paragraph 1 of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, and therefore of a reasonable time standard, on bankruptcy proceedings are unquestioned. In this context, the authors re-examine whether the long-term duration of the bankruptcy proceedings for a worker would result in a violation of the right to a trial within a reasonable time, especially regarding the right to just compensation for violation of the reasonable time of bankruptcy proceedings. Although different methodological approaches are available in analyzing this complex issue of the paper, the authors have opted for an analysis of the practice of the European Court of Human Rights in proceedings in addition to Article 6. (Right to a fair trial) because they are based on the assumption that knowledge about this can be crucial to understanding of main issues of this paper.