The Sofia Public Prosecutor’s Office had ordered the suspension of the performance of a privatisation contract relating to an hotel. The office had acted under its criminal jurisdiction and had also brought a civil action. There had been no finding of guilt: when it ordered the suspension, the Public Prosecutor’s Office had stated that ‘(the) facts could only be elucidated through a criminal investigation’
Held: ‘the measures taken by the Sofia City Prosecutor’s Office did not involve a finding of guilt, but were rather designed, as is apparent from the wording of the provisions on which they were grounded and the reasons given, to prevent the future commission of offences and safeguard the public interest.
Accordingly, the criminal limb of Article 6.1 was inapplicable. However, the Court held that the civil limb of Article 6 did apply, because ‘the ordered suspension of the performance of the privatisation contract and the eviction of the applicant company from the hotel had a clear and decisive impact on its capability to use and operate it, which was undoubtedly an exercise of a civil right’:
Citations:
57785/00, [2006] ECHR 627
Links:
Statutes:
European Convention on Human Rights
Jurisdiction:
Human Rights
Cited by:
Cited – Wright and Others, Regina (on the Application of) v Secretary of State for Health Secretary of State for Education and Skills Admn 16-Nov-2006
The various applicants sought judicial review of the operation of the Protection of Vulnerable Adults List insofar as they had been placed provisionally on the list, preventing them from finding work. One complaint was that the list had operated . .
Cited – Wright and Others, Regina (on the Application of) v Secretary of State for Health and Another HL 21-Jan-2009
The claimants had been provisionally listed as ‘people considered unsuitable to work with vulnerable adults’ which meant that they could no longer work, but they said they were given no effective and speedy opportunity to object to the listing. . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Human Rights
Updated: 29 September 2022; Ref: scu.243911