The requirement to pay fees to civil courts in connection with claims they are asked to determine could not in itself be regarded as a restriction on the right of access to a court that was incompatible with article 6(1). Article 6(1) secures to everyone the right to have any claim relating to his civil rights and obligations brought before a court or tribunal. In this way, that provision embodies the ‘right to a court’, of which the right of access, that is the right to institute proceedings before a court in civil matters, constitutes one aspect only; however it is an aspect that makes it in fact possible to benefit from the further guarantees laid down in paragraph (1) of Article 6. The fair public and expeditious characteristics of judicial proceedings are indeed of no value at all if such proceedings are not first initiated. In civil matters one can scarcely conceive of the rule of law without there being a possibility of having access to the courts.
However, a fee equivalent to the average annual salary in Poland was excessive.
Citations:
[2001] 11 BHRC 456, 28249/95, [2001] ECHR 394, [2001] ECHR 398, [2011] ECHR 1289
Links:
Statutes:
European Convention on Human Rights 6.1
Jurisdiction:
Human Rights
Cited by:
Cited – Liubov Ford v Richard Labrador PC 22-May-2003
(Gibraltar) The appellant had failed in an action for defamation, she had been ordered to pay costs as a condition of her continuing the action.
Held: The order was made by the Chief Justice sitting as a judge of the Court of Appeal in an . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Human Rights
Updated: 04 June 2022; Ref: scu.166134
