THE RIGHT TO A TRIAL WITHIN A REASONABLE TIME: ON ATTEMPTS AND FAILURES OF THE POLICY OF SPEEDING UP COURT PROCEEDINGS IN CROATIA
THE RIGHT TO A TRIAL WITHIN A REASONABLE TIME: ON ATTEMPTS AND FAILURES OF THE POLICY OF SPEEDING UP COURT PROCEEDINGS IN CROATIA

Author(s): Alan Uzelac
Subject(s): Politics / Political Sciences, Law, Constitution, Jurisprudence
Published by: CEDET Centar za demokratsku tranziciju
Keywords: court proceedings; reform ofjudiciary; reasonable time; fair trial; Croatia
Summary/Abstract: Attempts for speeding up court proceedings in Croatia are going into several directions, both on the organizational and the proceedings level. This paper starts with a presentation of several aspects that incited discussions on the need for speeding up the procedure and moved them to the very focus of discussions on reforms in the judiciary. As the background of the problem of lengthy trials, a short historical overview of the development of court proceedings is given, in the context of legal and political tradition in which legal institutions developed. Six strategies for acceleration of trials are analyzed, as identified in the current reform initiatives. Intended reforms of court proceedings (litigation, enforcement and bankruptcy) are given in brief, as well as the attempts of introducing national constitutional means in order to avoid complaints for infringement of rights to fair trial before the European Court of Human Rights. In the conclusion, the doubt is expressed whether it will be possible, given the current personnel structure and political readiness to conduct only halfway reforms, to achieve considerable progress. Without an efficient judiciary, however, a com­prehensive transition according to the model of democratic liberal state is not possible either, and the problem of the delay also puts in question the feasibility of economic reforms.

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