The applicability of Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights in disputes concerning taxes
The applicability of Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights in disputes concerning taxes

Summary/Abstract: This article approaches the rather thorny issue of the applicability of Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights in tax proceedings. While in the early days of the Convention tax issues were absent from the caselaw of the European Court of Human Rights, from the 1980s this became a recurrent issue for the Court. In the first part of the paper I will deal with the earlier development of the applicability of Article 6 under its civil head. Then, I will address the caselaw of the Grand Chamber in the cases of Ferrazzini v. Italy and Jussila v. Finland, as well as the objections to these decisions and the dissenting opinions in the cases. Since article 6 under its civil head is not applicable to tax proceedings, in the second part of the paper I will analyse the other articles in the Convention which provide a basis for hearing tax-related cases. These include Article 6 in its criminal limb, Article 1 Protocol no. 1 to the Convention, alone and in conjunction with Article 13 of the Convention.Finally, I will address the inconsistency in the Court’s caselaw and possible reasons why it has not yet decided to remedy them.

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