scholarly journals Media reporting and respect of human rights in criminal procedure

Temida ◽  
2005 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 23-26 ◽  
Author(s):  
Natasa Mrvic-Petrovic

In this paper the cases from the practice of criminal courts in Serbia during 2004 are analyzed. On the basis of findings from monitoring of trials the author argues that incorrect media reporting has negative consequences on the right to fair trial political manipulation of media and biased and sensationalistic reporting are stressed. As a possible solution the author suggests education and restricted access to information during pre-trial procedure.

2019 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 351-368
Author(s):  
Joanna Nicholson

Abstract That an accused receives a fair trial is essential to the legitimacy of international criminal courts and tribunals. However, how best to interpret the right to a fair trial in order to maximize the legitimacy of international criminal courts and tribunals’ decision-making? Some argue that international criminal courts and tribunals should aspire to the highest standards of fairness and should aim to set an example for domestic courts in this regard. Others argue that the unique context within which international criminal courts and tribunals operate allows them, at times, to interpret the right to a fair trial in a way which falls below minimum international human rights standards. This article examines both of these positions and finds both to be problematic. Rather, the article argues that international criminal courts and tribunals should aim for a middle path, the ‘fair enough’ standard, when interpreting the right to a fair trial. In situations where a different standard than that found within international human rights law is applied, international criminal courts and tribunals should expend greater effort in being open and clear as to why this is so, and should take care in communicating this to their audience, including victims and the accused. By doing so, the legitimacy of their decision-making will be enhanced.


2021 ◽  
Vol 25 (3) ◽  
pp. 602-621
Author(s):  
Fardin Y. Khalilov

The level of realization of the right to a fair trial is one of the crucial indicators of democracy in any state. In order to ensure this right, all the minimum standards deriving from it must be clearly understood by law enforcement agencies and their practice must meet these standards. As equality of arms, the right to a fair trial, is not directly enshrined in the text of Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights (hereafter - the Convention) and is of implicit character; the issues like its essence, content and the way it should manifest in practice are open for discussion. For this reason, the focus on those issues is highly relevant. The aim of this article is, with reference to the case law of the European Court of Human Rights (hereafter - ECHR) and the modern doctrine based on this right, to explain the role of this principle and the essence of its mutual relations with the other elements of the right to a fair trial. Selected case law of ECHR bears great interest compared with other decisions and is discussed in the form of empirical materials of the study. From the doctrinal materials, interpretation of Article 6 of the Convention and theoretical sources related to the European standards in the criminal procedure are also analyzed. The article exercises methods of dialectical comprehension; they are determinism, induction, deduction, case studies and methods of law interpretation. As a result of the study, a unique doctrinal commentary has been obtained in the context of adversariality and impartial and independent court principles of the concept of equality of arms, as well as, interaction of the minimum rights of persons subject to criminal prosecution, guaranteed by the Convention.


Author(s):  
Oleksandr Kalynovskyi ◽  
Serhii Tkachenko

Article outlines the legal guarantees of personal privacy inviolability, reveals the content of the right to privacy and provides recommendationsfor pre-trial investigation agencies to conduct certain investigative (search) actions in penal institutions.The European Court of Human Rights refers all issues related to collection, storage, use and provision of access to informationabout person’s life to the sphere of private life. In its practice, the ECHR did not formulate a proper interpretation of the “private life”concept, but only noted the comprehensive nature of this term which does not have an exhaustive definition.Such principle of criminal process as non-interference in private life is reflected in Article 15 of the Criminal Procedure Code ofUkraine, which states that in the course of criminal proceedings non-interference in private (personal and family) life is guaranteed toeveryone.Information about a person’s private life obtained in accordance with the procedure provided for in the Criminal Procedure Codeof Ukraine may be used exclusively for the goals of criminal proceedings. Everyone with access to information about private life isobliged to prevent its disclosure.Authors emphasize that the pre-trial investigation agencies process information with restricted access while performing the tasksassigned in accordance with job descriptions. This may include official or confidential information along with sensitive data – in thesecases unjustified disclosure can lead to serious consequences.Sexuality is defined as one of the most important components of “private life” conceptual framework, which, as the EuropeanCourt of Human Rights has repeatedly emphasized, is the most intimate sphere of life. This domain includes issues related to homosexualrelationships, gender identity and sex life in general. In such cases, it is the protection of the human right to the development ofone’s personality that is crucial. Due to the natural intimacy of these issues it acquires a degree of protection against interference.Based on the analysis of the legal regulation of the crime scene examination in places of detention, authors concluded that thisprocedure is not clearly regulated, and it requires the investigator to properly prepare and comprehend the algorithm of one’s actions,use audio / video recorders and for the investigative action parties and established security in penal institutions for search and involvementof attesting witnesses, involvement of other investigative (search) actions parties, including the stage of crime scene examination.Information about person’s private life, obtained in the course of pre-trial investigation, even if this person is staying at the place ofdetention, must be duly protected from possible disclosure and access of third parties.The fact of interference with a person’s private life (personal privacy) is a violation of human dignity, personal independence andintegrity. Therefore, pre-trial investigation agencies should be able to clearly observe the balance between the interests of the individual,society and the state during criminal proceedings, and each procedural decision and action must be properly executed, as violation ofcriminal procedure entails the loss of not only evidence, but can also lead to negative consequences in connection with the disclosureof information about the private life of a person.In addition, the pre-trial investigation agencies do not have the right to seize the client-lawyer correspondence, personal medicaldocumentation, including sensitive data, during investigative (search) actions in places of temporary isolation (places of detention)without clearly defined judicial procedures, while investigators must inform the person in details about the aim and procedure of itsperformance.


2021 ◽  
pp. 463-479
Author(s):  
Faruk Avdić

This paper aims to assess the compliance of the provisions of the criminal procedural legislation of Bosnia and Herzegovina dealing with the restrictions of the right to inspect the case file with the standards developed in the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights. The working hypothesis laid out in this paper is that the right of the prosecutor to unilaterally restrict the defense right to access the case file during the investigation and to unilaterally decide which evidence he will use as the basis for the indictment does not satisfy the requirements stemming from the right to a fair trial. The starting point of this paper is the analysis of the case law of the European Court of Human Rights. Afterward, the paper turns to the consideration of the provisions of the criminal procedural legislation of Bosnia and Herzegovina dealing with the restrictions of the right to inspect the case file. In that purpose, this paper employs normative and formal dogmatic legal methods in analyzing the particulars of its subject. The conclusion of the paper is that the law of Bosnia and Herzegovina when it comes to the restrictions of the right to inspect the case file is not in line with the standards of the European Court of Human Rights. For this reason, there is a need for the amending of the Criminal Procedure Codes in force in Bosnia and Herzegovina with the aim of making these Codes compliant with the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights in that respect.


2019 ◽  
Vol 76 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 180-188
Author(s):  
Bianca Nicla Romano

Art. 24 of the 1948 Declaration of Human Rights recognises and protects the right of the individual to rest and leisure. This right has to be fully exercised without negative consequences on the right to work and the remuneration. Tourism can be considered one of the best ways of rest and leisure because it allows to enrich the personality of the individual. Even after the reform of the Title V this area is no longer covered by the Italian Constitution, the Italian legal system protects and guarantees it as a real right, so as to get to recognize its existence and the consequent compensation of the so-called “ruined holiday damage”. This kind of damage has not a patrimonial nature, but a moral one, and the Tourist-Traveler can claim for it when he has not been able to fully enjoy his holiday - the essential fulcrum of tourism - intended as an opportunity for leisure and/or rest, essential rights of the individual.


Author(s):  
Sof'ya Shestakova ◽  
Uulzhan Imanalieva

The article iis devoted to the research of the institution of investigative judge introduced into the criminal procedure of the Kyrgyz Republic in 2019. The authors analyze the conceptual foundations of this institution, its procedural significance, as well as the legal model under Kyrgyz legislation in its comparative perspective with the legislation of Germany and some former Soviet republics. Two main achievements: the organizational and functional isolation of an investigating judge during the criminal procedure and granting them the power of deposition are seen by the authors as advantages of the Kyrgyz model of the institution of an investigative judge. The former is aimed at guaranteeing the objectivity, impartiality and neutrality of the judge considering the case on the merits, who is discharged judicial control in pre-trial procedure nowadays. The latter is aimed at implementing for the prosecution and defense the right to be equal parties of procedural opportunities to participate in evidence as an integral element of the adversarial principle.


2014 ◽  
pp. 33-48
Author(s):  
Przemysław Florjanowicz-Błachut

The core function of the judiciary is the administration of justice through delivering judgments and other decisions. The crucial role for its acceptance and legitimization by not only lawyers, but also individulas (parties) and the hole society plays judicial reasoning. It should reflect on judge’s independence within the exercise of his office and show also judicial self-restraint or activism. The axiology and the standards of proper judicial reasoning are anchored both in constitutional and supranational law and case-law. Polish Constitutional Tribunal derives a duty to give reasoning from the right to a fair trial – right to be heard and bring own submissions before the court (Article 45 § 1 of the Constitution), the right to appeal against judgments and decisions made at first stage (Article 78), the rule of two stages of the court proceedings (Article 176) and rule of law clause (Article 2), that comprises inter alia right to due process of law and the rule of legitimate expactation / the protection of trust (Vertrauensschutz). European Court of Human Rights derives this duty to give reasons from the guarantees of the right to a fair trial enshrined in Article 6 § 1 of European Convention of Human Rights. In its case-law the ECtHR, taking into account the margin of appreciation concept, formulated a number of positive and negative requirements, that should be met in case of proper reasoning. The obligation for courts to give sufficient reasons for their decisions is also anchored in European Union law. European Court of Justice derives this duty from the right to fair trial enshrined in Articles 6 and 13 of the ECHR and Article 47 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union. Standards of the courts reasoning developed by Polish constitutional court an the European courts (ECJ and ECtHR) are in fact convergent and coherent. National judges should take them into consideration in every case, to legitimize its outcome and enhance justice delivery.


Author(s):  
Lisa Rodgers

‘Ordinary’ employment contracts—including those of domestic servants—have been deemed to attract diplomatic immunity because they fall within the scope of diplomatic functions. This chapter highlights the potential for conflict between these forms of immunity and the rights of the employees, and reflects on cases in which personal servants of diplomatic agents have challenged both the existence of immunity and the scope of its application. The chapter examines claims that the exercise of diplomatic immunity might violate the right to a fair trial under Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights and the way in which courts have dealt with these issues. The chapter analyses diplomats’ own employment claims and notes that they are usually blocked by the assertion of immunity, but also reflects on more recent developments in which claims had been considered which were incidental to diplomatic employment (eg Nigeria v Ogbonna [2012]).


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Léon E Dijkman

Abstract Germany is one of few jurisdictions with a bifurcated patent system, under which infringement and validity of a patent are established in separate proceedings. Because validity proceedings normally take longer to conclude, it can occur that remedies for infringement are imposed before a decision on the patent’s validity is available. This phenomenon is colloquially known as the ‘injunction gap’ and has been the subject of increasing criticism over the past years. In this article, I examine the injunction gap from the perspective of the right to a fair trial enshrined in Art. 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights. I find that the case law of the European Court of Human Rights interpreting this provision supports criticism of the injunction gap, because imposing infringement remedies with potentially far-reaching consequences before the validity of a patent has been established by a court of law arguably violates defendants’ right to be heard. Such reliance on the patent office’s grant decision is no longer warranted in the light of contemporary invalidation rates. I conclude that the proliferation of the injunction gap should be curbed by an approach to a stay of proceedings which is in line with the test for stays as formulated by Germany’s Federal Supreme Court. Under this test, courts should stay infringement proceedings until the Federal Patent Court or the EPO’s Board of Appeal have ruled on the validity of a patent whenever it is more likely than not that it will be invalidated.


2021 ◽  
pp. 092405192199274
Author(s):  
Cathérine Van de Graaf

Fair procedures have long been a topic of great interest for human rights lawyers. Yet, few authors have drawn on research from other disciplines to enrich the discussion. Social psychological procedural justice research has demonstrated in various applications that, besides the final outcome, the manner in which one’s case is handled matters to people as well. Such research has shown the impact of procedural justice on individuals’ well-being, their acceptance of unfavourable decisions, perceptions of legitimacy and public confidence. The ECtHR has confirmed the desirability of these effects in its fair trial jurisprudence. Thus far, it remains unclear to what extent the guarantees offered by Article 6(1) of the European Convention on Human Rights (the right to a fair trial) coincide with the findings of empirical procedural justice research. This article aims to rectify this and uncover similarities between the two disciplines.


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