Effective Court Administration and Professionalism of Judges as Necessary Factors Safeguarding the Mother of Justice – The Right to a Fair Trial

Abstract

One of the fundamental human rights and the rights of nations is the Right to a fair trial. A legal paradox is that immense violations of this right have been declared worldwide for many years despite the significance of this right and the fact that it is executed by the courts and judges themselves. Professionalism of a judge and a court as an institution is a prerequisite for effective execution of this right and at the same time the level of protection of the Right to a fair trial could be taken as a criterion for evaluation of the judicial systems. The modern concept of this right and thoughtful identification of its elements show not just the development of the legal systems but are indicators of legal culture of western civilization in administering of justice. The author raises the hypothesis that court administration and high professional standards of judges are the main prerequisites to preserve the Right to a fair trial. Court administration and judicial professional standards should preserve the main elements of the Right to a fair trial, and first of all “fairness” and “the independence and impartiality of the court”. The ability to ensure the proper implementation of the right to a fair trial in practice is one of the key qualitative criteria for assessing court performance. The scope of this article is to systemize the main original establishments of the Right to a fair trial and its elements, particularly the essential requirements for “fairness” and “the independence and impartiality of the court (judge)” from the point of view of court administration and professional standard of a judge. It is important to determine main requirements for the high judicial professional standard of a judge as a prerequisite for proper execution of the Right to a fair trial. The legal and ethical values that the Right to a fair trial grant internationally is best represented by the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights (“ECtHR”). Therefore, the article is based on the main legal thoughts that are developed by the jurisprudence of this international court, using the systematic material on jurisprudence of ECtHR, comparative analyses and doctrinal support.