„FAIR TRIAL” PRINCIPLE IN DECISIONS OF EUROPEAN COURT OF HUMAN RIGHTS

The article begins with a definition of a “fair trial” and some other notions involved. Then the author presents a discussion of the civil rights and duties and complaints in penal cases, moving on to the requirements set for a court as an institution, i.e. easy access to a court of law, independence of a court, impartiality and statutory guarantees of its establishment, as well as the openness of proceedings and term of case trial. Toward the end the author analyses the “soundness” of trial course, the problem of equality of parties, the issue of personal participation in an oral trial, adversary procedure and the duty to provide grounds for the verdict, in addition to presumption of the accused innocence, the requirement to inform about accusation, the right for defense preparation and free defense counsel and interpreter