Article 6 echr
Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) guarantees the right to a fair trial. It encompasses several key principles, including the right to a public hearing, the right to be presumed innocent until proven guilty, and the right to legal assistance. This article is fundamental in safeguarding individuals' rights within the legal system.
8 Key excerpts on "Article 6 echr"
eBook - ePub- Routledge(Author)
- 2013(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...The government has since repealed the measures and the derogation has been withdrawn. Article 6 - Right to a fair trial 1 In the determination of his civil rights and obligations or of any criminal charge against him, everyone is entitled to a fair and public hearing within a reasonable time by an independent and impartial tribunal established by law. Judgment shall be pronounced publicly but the press and public may be excluded from all or part of the trial in the interests of morals, public order or national security in a democratic society, where the interests of juveniles or the protection of the private life of the parties so require, or to the extent strictly necessary in the opinion of the court in special circumstances where publicity would prejudice the interests of justice. 2 Everyone charged with a criminal offence shall be presumed innocent until proved guilty according to law. 3 Everyone charged with a criminal offence has the following minimum rights: a to be informed promptly, in a language which he understands and in detail, of the nature and cause of the accusation against him; b to have adequate time and facilities for the preparation of his defence; c to defend himself in person or through legal assistance of his own choosing or, if he has not sufficient means to pay for legal assistance, to be given it free when the interests of justice so require; d to examine or have examined witnesses against him and to obtain the attendance and examination of witnesses on his behalf under the same conditions as witnesses against him; e to have the free assistance of an interpreter if he cannot understand or speak the language used in court. Article 6 contains the fundamental principle which underpins the ECHR, namely the fair administration of justice. It is the most commonly raised article...
eBook - ePub- Howard Davis(Author)
- 2014(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...This is central to the rule of law and it is what distinguishes the administraton of justice in a decent society from the show trials of dictatorships. A right to a fair trial is, therefore, widely recognised. It is implied by Magna Carta (1215). It is an important feature of written constitutions (such as the US Constitution, 1789, which requires ‘due process’ of law). Likewise it is an important principle of international law, expressed in the UN Declaration of Human Rights (Articles 10 and 11) and given fuller legal effect by the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (Article 14). UK LAW: ARTICLE 6, THE HRA AND THE COMMON LAW In the European Convention on Human Rights, Article 6 gurantees the ‘right to a fair trial’ to claimants in civil cases and to defendants in criminal trials. Article 6 rights are, of course, given effect in UK law through the terms of the Human Rights Act 1998 (HRA). Procedures before the courts and tribunals of the UK tend to be found in: • primary legislation (such as the Senior Courts Act 1981, the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984) or the Tribunals Courts and Enforcement Act 2007, • secondary legislation (such as the Civil Procedure Rules or the tribunal rules). Section 3 HRA requires this primary and secondary legislation to be interpreted consistently with Article 6 (unless it is really impossible)...
eBook - ePub- Peter Halstead(Author)
- 2014(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...Judgment shall be pronounced publicly but the press and public may be excluded from all or part of the trial in the interests of morals, public order or national security in a democratic society, where the interests of juveniles or the protection of the private life of the parties so require, or to the extent strictly necessary in the opinion of the court in special circumstances where publicity would prejudice the interests of justice.’ One reason why the Convention is so important is that it has forced re-examination of English law in light of continental civil law legal systems, thus shining a spotlight into situations where English law may have become stultified or in need of modernisation or reconsideration. As indicated previously, although the detail in Articles 6(2) and 6(3) deals exclusively with criminal matters, Article 6(1) does make it clear that the Article as a whole encompasses ‘civil rights and obligations’ which also come within the protection of the Article’s insistence on ‘fair and public hearings … within a reasonable time by an independent and impartial tribunal established by law’. 7.5.1 Excluded hearings It is important to note that the European Court of Human Rights is not to be used as a means simply of trying to obtain a rehearing of domestic case law when litigants or accused citizens are unhappy with the outcome. The role of the European Court is to examine whether the previous proceedings were fair and complied with the requirements of Article 6 when taken as a whole. This means that the Court will not formulate conclusions as to whether appropriate sentences have been reached, or even whether a conviction was safe. The core of Article 6(1) is that ‘everyone is entitled to a fair and public hearing within a reasonable time by an independent and impartial tribunal established by law’...
eBook - ePub- Howard Davis(Author)
- 2013(Publication Date)
- Willan(Publisher)
...A criminal conviction, for example, should be set aside. 16 The basic guarantee is to a fair trial. What this requires involves, first, a number of express rights as identified in Article 6(1), (2) and (3). These express rights apply without any other restriction other than those, such as the exceptions to public pronouncement in Article 6(1), which are found in the article. However, the Strasbourg institutions have also identified a range of rights which can be implied from the express rights and which are manifestations of the basic guarantee to a fair trial. 16 R v Forbes [2001] 1 All ER 686, 697 [24]. An important feature of the Article 6 protection is the acceptance of the ‘curative appeal’ by which it is recognised that even if the procedure at first instance does not conform to Article 6 the possibility of an appeal to a court or tribunal whose procedures do so conform and which can deal with all the issues in dispute generally meets the requirements of the Article. 17 17 For example, R (Alconbury Developments Ltd) v Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions [2001] 2 All ER 929, HL; Bryan v United Kingdom (1995) 21 EHRR 342; Director General of Fair Trading v Proprietary Association of Great Britain and another [2001] NLJ 1372, CA. Cf. Kingsley v United Kingdom Ap. 35605/97, The Times, 9 January 2001. Article 6 rights are not necessarily confined to the trial process itself. The requirement of a fair trial, particularly the need that defendants should not be disadvantaged, can mean that they are relevant to the investigation of crime. Evidence obtained by improper process may violate Article 6. 18 18 Murray v United Kingdom (1996) 22 EHRR 29. 8.3.1 Reasonable restrictions The requirements of a fair trial in Article 6 can be subject to reasonable and proportionate restriction without there being a violation of the rights. The possibility of such restrictions applies especially to the implied rights...
eBook - ePubCourt Delay and Human Rights Remedies
Enforcing the Right to a Fair Hearing 'Within a Reasonable Time'
- Caroline Savvidis(Author)
- 2016(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...2 Guidance Drawn from Judgments of the European Court of Human Rights; the Relevance and Utility of ECHR Articles 6 and 13 to Length-of-Proceedings Cases Chapter Introduction In the determination of his civil rights and obligations or of any criminal charge against him, everyone is entitled to a fair and public hearing within a reasonable time by an independent and impartial tribunal established by law. … – ECHR Article 6 (right to a fair trial) sub-section 1 Everyone whose rights and freedoms as set forth in this Convention are violated shall have an effective remedy before a national authority notwithstanding that the violation has been committed by persons acting in an official capacity. – ECHR Article 13 (right to an effective remedy) The right to the determination of civil rights or obligations, or of any criminal charge, ‘within a reasonable time’ has dichotomous ramifications under the European Convention on Human Rights which stem from the interplay between Articles 6 and 13. The Strasbourg Court has required of states, in addition to ensuring that each particular case is heard within a reasonable time, a further level of compliance in terms of the provision of effective legal remedies to provide redress for breaches of this right. In order to determine whether a state is in compliance with Convention standards therefore, regard must be had to the avenues of redress provided by the legal system in order to determine whether, both in theory and in practice, an effective remedy to prevent and compensate for unreasonable delay in judicial proceedings exists. The relevance of this second chapter will be to illustrate the pattern or framework approach of the European Court of Human Rights to the examination of the merits of length-of-proceedings cases...
eBook - ePubHuman Rights Law in Europe
The Influence, Overlaps and Contradictions of the EU and the ECHR
- Kanstantsin Dzehtsiarou, Theodore Konstadinides, Tobias Lock, Noreen O'Meara, Kanstantsin Dzehtsiarou, Theodore Konstadinides, Tobias Lock, Noreen O'Meara(Authors)
- 2014(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...In sum, Article 47 CFR and Article 6(1) ECHR also include the right to effective judicial protection, the right of access to court, the right to a fair and public hearing, the right to adversarial proceedings/equality of arms, the right to a defence, the right to be heard, the right against self-incrimination, the right to legal representation, the right to a reasoned judgment. 59 See L. Cariolou and A. Demetriades in EU Network of Independent Experts on Fundamental Rights, Commentary of the Charter of Fundamental Rights, at 359–360. 60 Ibid, at 367. On the other hand, Article 48 CFR corresponds mainly to Article 6(2)–(3) ECHR. 61 These subparagraphs of Article 6 include the specific rights of defence applicable to criminal procedure only, namely the presumption of innocence and the right to call for and examine witnesses and evidence, the right to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation, the right to adequate time for preparation of one’s defence, and the right to an interpreter. Nonetheless, it should be noted that the specific rights contained in Article 6(2)–(3) ECHR are considered by the ECtHR to be just partial aspects of the overall right to fair trial and thus, are read in conjunction with Article 6(1) ECHR. 62 Article 6(1) ECHR, like Article 47 CFR, is not confined purely to criminal proceedings, however, but is applicable to other procedures as well. Given that CFR rights apply to the sum of EU law, this makes sense as Article 47 CFR will be applied also for example, to antitrust proceedings at EU level 63 or in national administrative proceedings through which EU law is being implemented. This explains the duplication of the rights of defence in both Articles 47 and 48 CFR. 61 See Opinion of AG Sharpston in Ciprian Vasile Radu, n. 10, para. 14. 62 E.g. Vidal v. Belgium, app. no. 12351/86, Series A 235-B. 63 E.g. Case C-235/92 P Montecatini SpA v. Commission [1999] ECR I-4539, paras...
eBook - ePub- Richard Gordon, Tim Ward(Authors)
- 2013(Publication Date)
- Routledge-Cavendish(Publisher)
...Chapter 5 Article 6, Judicial Review and Natural Justice DOI: 10.4324/9781843140368-5 Overview 5.01 The common law doctrine of natural justice contains powerful principles of procedural fairness. The right to a fair trial contained in Article 6 of the ECHR substantially overlaps with those doctrines. As shall be seen, however, the protections provided by Article 6 are, in some respects at least, considerably broader than those provided by the common law. Article 6 does not, though, apply to all areas of the law which fall within the scope of the doctrine of natural justice. 5.02 Article 6 is far more than a mere overlay to natural justice. It will fundamentally affect the nature of judicial review itself, and, controversially, in some circumstances, may impact upon the substantive nature of the law. 5.03 These issues are explored below. 5.04 Article 6 provides: In the determination of his civil rights and obligations or of any criminal charge against him, everyone is entitled to a fair and public hearing, within a reasonable time by an independent and impartial tribunal established by law...
- Helen Fenwick, Gavin Phillipson, Alexander Williams(Authors)
- 2020(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...This body of law is confined to those areas covered by the Treaty of Rome 1957 and subsequent Treaties. Each Treaty (ie the Maastricht, Amsterdam, Nice and Lisbon Treaties) has been incorporated into UK domestic law by statute. The law emanating from Europe which applies in the United Kingdom includes regulations, directives, and decisions. EU membership also means that rulings from the European Court of Justice can be binding on domestic courts within the United Kingdom … Where it applies, EU law operates as a higher order law and will have the effect of overriding domestic legal provisions [though possibly not all—see chapter 4 at 150 and chapter 5 at 196–97]. European Convention on Human Rights Since the Human Rights Act (HRA) 1998 came into force in October 2000 the ECHR is incorporated as part of UK law. The ECHR can be regarded as amounting to a constitutional charter of rights. As we shall see in later chapters, the ECHR is an international treaty setting out basic individual rights including: right to life; liberty and security; prohibition of torture and slavery; right to fair trial; no punishment without law; right to respect for privacy and family life; freedom of thought, conscience, and religion; freedom of expression; freedom of assembly and association; and prohibition of discrimination. All public bodies, including the courts, are legally required to act in a way which is compatible with the above rights, and a remedy may be sought if these citizen rights are breached.… The Law and Customs of Parliament The law and customs of Parliament refers to the resolutions of the two Houses of Parliament which establish parliamentary practice (standing orders of the House). This body of rules is of great political importance and it ranges from the regulation of debates to the functions of the leaders of the government and opposition. These rules can be changed by MPs and peers...
