Saint-Louis University - Bruxelles
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DRHO2130 - Right to a Fair Trial


[2 Q. • 30 Th. • 4 ECTS - credits]


Lecturers : Krenc Frédéric, Beernaert Marie-Aude
Language of instruction : French
Learning outcomes : At the end of the course, the students should be capable of reading and understanding the decisions of the European Court of Human Rights related to the right to a fair trial and to situate them, from a critical perspective, in the wider context of the Court's case law.
Prerequisites : In light of the technical nature of the subject matter, the course is basically (but not exclusively) intended for holders of a Master's degree in law.
Course contents : The course proposes a detailed analysis of article 6 of the European Convention of Human Rights as well as of the related case law, which gives the article its substance.
It has two main components.
(I) After having determined the methods of interpreting article 6 of the European Convention of Human Rights, the course first goes about circumscribing article 6's field of application and examining the “cross-disciplinary” guarantees applicable to any lawsuit (civil, criminal, administrative, constitutional, disciplinary, etc.): taught by the first co-lecturer.
(II) The course then proceeds with a thorough analysis of the procedural guarantees more specifically applicable to criminal trials: taught by the second co-lecturer.
Mode of delivery : Teaching takes place in the form of lectures. In light of the course's highly specific nature as well as its essentially case law dimension, the analysis of the Court's decisions constitutes a technique favoured by the lecturers.
Assessment methods and criteria : Assessment is based on an oral examination which covers the subject material discussed during the course and which is held with both lecturers at the same time.

It includes a first question for which each student is granted fifteen minutes to prepare, followed by complementary questions addressed to the student during the oral examination.

The questions aim to measure the students' level of knowledge and their capacity to read, to understand and to explain the decisions handed down by the European Court of Human Rights.

Throughout the examination, the student may have printed copies of the Court's decisions (without annotations) referred to during the course (on the other hand, they may not have their class notes).
Recommended or required reading : Sébastien Van Drooghenbroeck, La Convention européenne des droits de l'homme - Trois années de jurisprudence (2002-2004), Articles 1 à 6, vol. 1, Les dossiers du «  Journal des tribunaux  », n°57, Bruxelles, Larcier, 2006.

Laure Milano, Le droit à un tribunal au sens de la Convention européenne des droits de l'homme, Paris, Dalloz, 2006.

Franklin Kuty, Justice pénale et procès équitable, 2 volumes, Bruxelles, Larcier, 2006.

See also the general texts on the European Convention of Human Rights: F. Sudre et alii, Les grands arrêts de la Cour européenne des droits de l'homme, Paris, PUF, 6ème éd., 2011, mais aussi Y. Haeck et J. Vande Lanotte, Handboek EVRM, Intersentia, 2004.

Additional resource materials are the articles and comments published in la Revue trimestrielle des droits de l'homme, le Journal des tribunaux et la J.L.M.B. (cited during the course).
Other information : Materials: A detailed course outline, including the main references to the case law studied, is provided to the students.