The right to a fair trial established by the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (the Convention) is a kind of “a marker” giving an idea of how the court system, as well as other public authorities, function. The very fact that Article 6 of the Convention exists has cardinally changed the approaches to the procedure of dispute resolution in courts in Ukraine, to the observance of the procedural and other terms, and to the conduct of criminal proceedings. Today, such cases as Bochan vs. Ukraine, Sovtransavto Holding vs. Ukraine, the Church of Sosulivka village vs. Ukraine etc. would be impossible. However, there are still some cases of violation of Article 6 of the Convention by Ukraine, and this calls for a further investigation into this issue and for an analysis of compliance with this legal provision in other countries. A study of the experience gained by the Republic of Poland, a member of the European Union, where the situation with observance of the rights established by Article 6 of the Convention is improving every year, may contribute to resolving this issue.

The purpose of this article is to analyze the specifics of exercise of the right to a fair trial in the Republic of Poland and to study the issues pertaining to the implementation of Article 6 of the Convention in the context of protection of the right to a fair trial in the country’s law application practice.

The author has studied the components of the right to a fair trial and the application practice of Article 6 of the Convention in the Republic of Poland. The article analyzes the dynamics of the European Court of Human Rights’ case law in Poland in general and with a focus on violation of Article 6 of the Convention in particular for the period of 2013– 2017. As the analysis demonstrated, in 2016–2017 the number of complaints concerning violations of Article 6 of the Convention and of the judgments passed under this Article decreased significantly.

The author has established that the coexistence of two legal systems in Poland – the national and the international ones, as well as their interdependence in the practical application context, gives rise to certain difficulties, with some of them ensuing from different nature and objectives of national and international laws and their application practices. By its content, Article 6 of the Convention is much narrower than Part 1 of Article 45 of the Republic of Poland’s Constitution, since the Convention guarantees rights in civil and criminal cases, while the Constitution of the Republic of Poland does not explicitly provide for such a limitation of the right to trial. Furthermore, there is a clear tendency towards seeing a more extensive content in the autonomous concepts of the Convention in its teleological interpretation. At the same time, the need to apply international treaties in the human rights protection domain is emphasized as an element of the regulatory framework of settlement owing to a relatively infrequent direct application of Part 1 of Article 45 of the Republic of Poland’s Constitution.

Bibliography

Authored books

1. Koba L i Waclawczyk W, Prawa chelowieka. Wybrane zagadnienia i problemy (Wolters Kluwer Polska 2009) (in Polish).

2. Leszczynski L i Lizewski B, Ochrona praw cheowieka w Europie: szkic zagadnien podstawowych (Oficyna Wydawnicza Verba 2008) (in Polish).

3. Machowicz K, Ochrona praw chelowieka w Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej na tle standardow europejskich (KUL 2008) (in Polish).

4. Nowicki M, Wokol Konwencji Europejskiej. Komentar do Europejskiej Konwencji Praw Chelowieka (Wolters Kluwer Polska 2009) (in Polish).

5. Hom’ien D, Korotkyi putivnyk Yevropeiskoiu konventsiieiu z prav liudyny [A Brief Guide to the European Convention on Human Rights] (Kalvariia 2000) (in Ukrainian).

Journal articles

6. Letowska E, ‘Konwenciya europeyska w Polsce i nasze myslenie o prawie’ (1992) 1-4 Kwartalnik Prawa Prywatnego 157 (in Polish).

7. Nikolenko L, ‘Poniattia ta oznaky perehliadu sudovykh rishen za novovyiavlenymy abo vykliuchnymy obstavynamy u hospodarskomu sudochynstvi’ [‘The Concept and Signs of Court Decision Review Due to Newly Discovered or Exceptional Circumstances in the Economic Proceedings’] (2018) 7 Pravo Ukrainy 119 (in Ukrainian).

8. Shcherbyna V ta Rieznikova V, ‘Osnovni zasady (pryntsypy) hospodarskoho sudochynstva Ukrainy’ [‘The Basis Principles (Fundamentals) of the Economic Court Procedure in Ukraine’] (2018) 7 Pravo Ukrainy 19 (in Ukrainian).

Websites

9. ‘Zestawienie wyroków – 2013’ (Polska Izba Informatyki i Telekomunikacji) <https:// www.piit.org.pl/sad-polubowny/orzecznictwo/zestawienie-wyrokow-2013> (accessed: 20.05.2019) (in Polish).

10. ‘Zestawienie wyroków – 2014’ (Polska Izba Informatyki i Telekomunikacji) <https:// www.piit.org.pl/sad-polubowny/orzecznictwo/zestawienie-wyrokow-2014> (accessed: 20.05.2019) (in Polish).

11. ‘Zestawienie wyroków – 2015’ (Polska Izba Informatyki i Telekomunikacji) <https:// www.piit.org.pl/sad-polubowny/orzecznictwo/zestawienie-wyrokow-2015> (accessed: 20.05.2019) (in Polish).

12. ‘Zestawienie wyroków – 2016’ (Polska Izba Informatyki i Telekomunikacji) <https:// www.piit.org.pl/sad-polubowny/orzecznictwo/zestawienie-wyrokow-2016> (accessed: 20.05.2019) (in Polish). 13. ‘Zestawienie wyroków – 2017’ (Polska Izba Informatyki i Telekomunikacji) <https:// www.piit.org.pl/sad-polubowny/orzecznictwo/zestawienie-wyrokow-2017> (accessed: 20.05.2019) (in Polish).

14. ‘Tabela naruszeń Konwencji w 2017 r.’ (Ministerstwo Sprawiedliwości) <https://bip. ms.gov.pl/pl/prawa-czlowieka/europejski-trybunal-praw-czlowieka/opracowaniaianalizy-standardy-w-zakresie-ochrony-praw-czlowieka/zestawienia-roczne/ download,1119,0.html> (accessed: 20.05.2019) (in Polish).

15. ‘Spravy Vtsyslo ta inshi proty Polshchi (pres-reliz)’ [‘The Cases of Vitsilo and Others v. Poland (Press Release)’] <https://www.echr.com.ua/translation/spravi-vcislo-ta-inshiprotipolshhi-pres-reliz> (accessed: 20.05.2019) (in Ukrainian).