PRIMENA ZAKONA O ZAŠTITI PRAVA NA SUĐENJE U RAZUMNOM ROKU U PARNIČNOM POSTUPKU

Abstract

The right to a trial within a reasonable time, as part of the corpus of the right to a fair trial, is guaranteed by Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms and also implemented in the legal system of the Republic of Serbia through the Constitution, the Law on the Protection of the Right to a Trial Within a Reasonable Time, as well as through other laws, partially (such as the Civil Procedure Act, among others). The subject of this paper is an analysis of the provisions of the LPRT (Law on the Protection of the Right to a Trial Within a Reasonable Time) which provide protection of this right, and also are applicable in civil proceedings, alongside with analysis of relevant case law from all judicial instances in our country. For the first time, LPRT comprehensively, systematically, and in detail regulates protection of this right through prescribed legal remedies. Judicial protection (as well as protection by the State Attorney's Office) is established both for the prevention of rights violations (through objections and appeals) and for compensation (in the form of requests for just satisfaction, proposals for monetary compensation for non-pecuniary damage, publication of a decision establishing a rights violation, and claims for compensation for both non-pecuniary and pecuniary damage). The party's ability to use compensatory legal remedies is conditioned on their procedural activity, specifically their prior use of preventive legal remedies to expedite the proceedings. To achieve effective protection of the right to a trial within a reasonable time in civil and other proceedings, besides the legal instruments available to parties, as well as the proper and consistent application of the provisions of the LPRT, it is necessary to improve the normative, personnel, professional, financial, and other conditions under which judiciary of the Republic of Serbia operates.