The right to be heard by an independent and impartial tribunal

Abstract

Once this right of access to a court has been established, Article 6(1) requires that the hearing should be held before an independent and impartial tribunal established by law. Thus, in the second chapter I intend to tackle the institutional aspect of these requirements of "independence" and "impartiality", and of "tribunals established by law". In fact, the organisation and composition of tribunals set up within the contracting states have frequently been matters of consideration of both the Commission and the Court. After having determined the institutional aspect of the right to a court I will go into the overall requirement of a fair hearing which is at the heart of Article 6, since together they form the right to a fair hearing. Only then is the scope of the Article discussed, and an attempt is made to impose some structure on the amorphous body of case law dealing with what is considered as a claim affecting the individual's "civil rights and obligations".