THE RIGHT OF ACCESS TO A COURT AS AN ASPECT OF THE RIGHT TO A FAIR TRIAL

Abstract

The topic of this paper is the right of access to a court, as an aspect of the right to a fair trial guaranteed by Article 29 of the Constitution and Article 6 of the Convention. The paper highlights the fundamental significance of the protection offered by the Convention, which concerns the drawing up and implementation of standards for the protection of human rights within the territory of Europe, and, through the positions of the European Court of Human Rights, which the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Croatia has accepted and elaborated in its adjudication. The paper also emphasises the importance of the Constitutional Court’s activism concerning the protection of human rights. It stresses the view that the purpose of Article 29 of the Constitution and of Article 6 of the Convention is to secure fair proceedings, and not to examine the correct outcome of proceedings. The authors prove this thesis in this paper. The basic theme of the paper, the right of access to a court, is recognised by the authors as the key aspect of the constitutional right to a fair trial. The first part of the paper deals in general with the right to a fair trial and its various aspects, it provides an overview of the case law of the European Court of Human Rights and of its effect on the case law of the Constitutional Court in its specific aspects, and provides the standpoints of other States. This is followed by a detailed analysis of the positions of the Constitutional Court with regard to the right of access to a court and, in particular, the evolution of these positions over time in this area of protection. The positions of the Constitutional Court are presented both through an abstract and an individual review of constitutionality. The interpretation of constitutional rights, which the Constitutional Court provides through its decisions and rulings, is considered by the authors to be the most significant contribution to the development of constitutional adjudication in the Republic of Croatia.