The criminal procedural may be exposed to the state of collapse by security-oriented policies resulting in suspense of the usual formalities of criminal proceedings and replacing them with ...emergency-oriented mechanisms. The collapse is due to the emergency of the country's political situation and social chaos, which is caused by the protests of a number of citizens against some policies. One of the most important factors of inception of such movement is the expansion of criminal law and maximum interference in people's freedoms and maintenance of political ideology. The Gap between the official norms and accepted values by citizens and insistence of the government to retain the norms via criminal protection of them gradually leads to social crises and civil disobedience. Conservatism, retrogression, standing against social and cultural changes, maintaining the status quo, refraining from fundamental reforms in political and social structures, have no result other than "crisis" and inevitably puts the citizens or a large part of them against the government. One simple solution to quell crisis is to declare the state of emergency and expand powers of the security forces and judicial authorities to arrest, prosecute and adjudicate the cases of protestors rapidly and secretly. The networks of control and supervision on citizens and the power and freedom of action of the police in this situation will be expanded and the logic of confrontation and repression are applied at high level. Due to the crowding of criminal cases in the judicial system as a result of these policies the rules of proceedings and some defense rights are ignored, including the right to have lawyer or the right to public trial, and prompt measures are taken into account due to the government's need to deal quickly and decisively. In such circumstances the guiding principles, especially the presumption and the principle of neutrality, and the government justifies its actions by claiming to maintain order and security of citizens. Summoning and arresting political dissidents without complying with legal frameworks and creating restrictions in cyberspace through filtering social networks and preventing the free flow of information are part of the strategies to deal with the crisis. When the political and social conditions are in an emergency, the fair criminal procedure inevitably collapses, and "extraordinary criminal procedure" prevails, which does not pay attention to the conventional and well-known rules of procedure and is often the product of the will of the political authorities and are dictated in the form of "judicial circulars". Thus, circulars have priority over the law. In this approach, the presumption of guilt is used instead of the principle of innocence, and the accused is treated as a criminal or a convict.The collapse of fair procedures is caused by factors that are mainly related to public strategies and macro policies. Incorrect policies or making wrong decisions regarding some social events and phenomena, legislation without paying attention to the basic needs of the people and ignorance of the political dissidents inevitably aggregate protests and social uprisings. Criminal policies based on arbitrary and baseless criminalization and merely based upon defending and protecting ideology, expanding criminal laws and maximum interference in people's freedoms, as well as the lack of transparency in statutes have unpleasant consequences in long term, and provide confrontation between citizens and policy makers.The substantive and procedural rules on security in the Iranian criminal law indicate that criminal policy makers have ignored some fundamental rights such as the right to choose a lawyer. In addition, following the expansion of the jurisdiction of special courts, which sometimes originates from circular, as well as the increase of the powers of judicial authorities and military forces, they have provided a legal basis for threatening the rights of individuals and the collapse of fair procedures. Holding secret and non-public trails and preventing the communication of court’s decisions are part of these challenges. Adjusting the criminalization and decriminalization of acts that are contrary to the values of citizens or a significant part of them, reforming public policies and avoiding criminal actions that create tension, and saving the criminal justice system from criminal inflation, and most importantly, paying attention to the phenomenon of "generational change" and normative gaps and ideology might be some solutions to prevent the collapse of fair criminal procedure. The Recognition of protests, changing policies and decriminalizing behaviors that have only an ideological aspect, removal of rights-threatening processes, accountability and prescribing discourse instead of criminal threats can prevent the criminal process from collapse.
The jury serves as an important reference point for criminal case processing, despite the fact that the majority of cases are disposed of by pleas or dismissals. This research examines the downstream ...impact of BWC footage on the adjudication process with a particular emphasis on the management of uncertainty. Research involved interviews with prosecutors and defense attorneys in urban counties in California, New York, and Texas. The results indicate that both defense and prosecution anticipate BWC changing approaches to cases and how cases may be negotiated to an outcome. They also report that jurors expect BWC footage, and that it functions as a means to establish case facts and the credibility of police, the defendant and witnesses. Policy implications regarding the introduction of BWC and future directions for research are discussed.
Abstract The right to fair trial is one of the fundamental human rights of humankind. Hence, this right has been now among constitutional norms and in the constitution of some countries it has been ...subject to constitutionalization. From a historical viewpoint, What important is the Mashruteh Constitution approach to fair trial, as a first constitution of Iran. The main question is that the drafters of this Act, what approach have to fair trial? This paper shows that drafters of Mashruteh Constitution and its complement (Motammem) dealt with “judicial security” and therefore recognized and constitutionalized a set of principles of fair trial such as legality, judiciality, privacy, judicial independence, access to justice, prohibition of unlawful arrest, etc. However, some other important principles such as presumption of innocence, access to a lawyer, prohibition of torture and etc were neglected. As a result, it can be concluded that the Mashruteh Constitution constitutionalized an incomplete version of fair trial.
The principle of judicial independence is a fundamental tenet of the rule of law and fair trial standards. The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) identifies four criteria for evaluating judicial ...independence: (a) the manner of a judge’s appointment; (b) the duration of such an appointment; (c) safeguards against external influence; and (d) the appearance of independence. The ECtHR also distinguishes several dimensions of judicial independence, including independence vis-à-vis the executive, parliament, other courts, and parties, as well as independence from judicial councils. Nevertheless, despite the existence of shared European principles on judicial independence, certain countries, particularly those undergoing transitions, encounter challenges such as political interference, corruption, and insufficient safeguards against dismissal. This results in a discernible disjunction between de jure and de facto judicial independence. This article poses the following research questions: What are the main approaches and common challenges for judicial independence in European countries based on the latest case law of the ECtHR? What lessons can be learned by Ukraine, as an EU candidate, from this case law in order to mitigate the gap between de jure and de facto judicial independence?
Abstract
This article focuses on a specific standard by which the right to a fair trial is interpreted in the context of the right to legal assistance and the right to examine witnesses under Article ...6 ECHR, the standard of overall fairness. The first section argues that the standard of overall fairness undermines the rule of law and represents a problematic conception of the right to a fair trial. The second section links overall fairness to the Court’s wider methodological approach to adjudication, namely ad hoc balancing, and establishes that ad hoc balancing is vulnerable to similar critiques. The third section advocates for a legal doctrine which rejects the theoretical assumptions of balancing and sets the basis for a reconceptualisation of the European Court of Human Rights’ approach to methodology and to the grant of remedies.
Although fair trial guarantees have always been recognised as constituting an integral aspect of international arbitral proceedings, this has largely been viewed through the lens of civil procedure ...rather than as a matter of public law and human rights. This state of affairs has further been compounded by the confidential nature of arbitration and the relative scarcity of set aside (annulment) proceedings before the courts of the seat of arbitration on the grounds of unequal treatment, and before human rights bodies such as the European Court of Human Rights. Moreover, it has always been difficult to reconcile contractual freedom and the advantages offered by arbitration with equal treatment and fair trial claims. This article demonstrates the existence of a set of general principles concerning the meaning and content of equal treatment, which are consistent with its commercial (and civil procedure) and human rights dimensions. The basis of this conclusion is Article 18 of the UNCITRAL Model Law on International Commercial Arbitration, as consistently interpreted and adapted by local laws and judgments, arbitral statutes and determinations by the European Court of Human Rights.
In this note, the author attempts to prove that the right to a fair trial is essentially a substantive right; that is, a right that combines the manifestations of a fundamental right. At the same ...time, this right imposes some positive duties on the State to provide for it. It has national and supranational regulations, and at the same
time reflects subjective law and axioms, as well as elements of procedural and substantive law. Attention is drawn to the fact that in Ukraine the legal nature of this right is implemented only partially, since neither legislation nor judicial practice recognize it as an independent object of protection.
Taking into account the provisions of Para 1, Art. 6 of the ECHRs and the case law of the ECtHR , the research proposes to define the scope of the applicability of the right to a fair trial proceeding from: (1) legally bound subjects, which may include not only courts within the judicial system of the country concerned on the basis of the law, but also other jurisdictional and quasi-judicial bodies; and (2) the procedures in which the guarantees of a fair trial must be observed. Depending on the existence or absence of a dispute over the rights in them the latter is divided into ‘disputed’, ‘conditionally disputed’ or ‘indisputable’. It is proved that the requirements of Art. 6, Para 1 of the ECHR do not apply to them, but that they are mandatory under the first two procedures. An attempt to analyse the recent positions of the ECtHR on the possibility of including protection measures in the scope of the application is made. Also, the author determines which of those protection measures provided in national law falls within the scope of this regulation. Furthermore, the author draws attention to the fact that the rights and duties to protect a person who is invoked must be ‘civil in nature’ in order to be covered by the guarantees of a fair trial. On the basis of certain criteria the author identifies procedures in the national legal system within which the right to a fair trial must be guaranteed.
Keywords: a right to a fair trial, substantive law, scope of applicability of the fair trial right, court, established by law, judicial procedures, legal dispute, diversification of judicial procedures, ‘civilistic’ rights and duties.
Commentary: Court proceedings against the alleged perpretrator of the Christchurch mosque attacks in 2019 led to what may be ground-breaking cooperation between the judicial system and the media to ...balance fair trial rights and a determination to (a) avoid retraumatisation and (b) prevent the court being used as a platform for white supremacist propaganda. The case, and the willingness of media to honour these imperatives, demonstrates the centrality of publicity in acts of terrorism known as ‘propaganda of the deed’. The research outlined in this article suggests that institutional cooperation can avoid ‘giving oxygen’ to perpetrators and their causes without sacrificing journalistic integrity or a duty to bear witness in the interests of open justice. A change of plea resulted in proceedings being limited to a sentencing hearing. A lengthy trial may have tested the robustness of the measures put in place but, nonetheless, the planning processes employed in New Zealand lead to a conclusion that they could provide a basis for similar cooperation in other judicial jurisdictions, such as Australia.
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