On 3 April 2018, the Council of Europe, in-cooperation with the Supreme Court of Cassation of the Republic of Serbia, organised a conference ‘Right to a Fair Trial within Reasonable Time and the Compensation for the Violation of the Right: Jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights and National Courts’, in Belgrade, Serbia.
The purpose of the conference was to assess the application of the Serbian Law on the Protection of a Trial within Reasonable Time and review different aspects of a reasonable time standard enshrined under Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights. The particular focus was on the appropriate redress for excessive length of proceedings (pecuniary and non-pecuniary damage) in the case law of the European Court of Human Rights (the Court) and national courts. Representatives of the Court Secretariat and the Department for the Execution of Judgments of the Court presented the method of calculation applied by the Court when determining non-pecuniary damage for the violation of a reasonable time standard as well as the overall situation with the execution of the Court judgments against Serbia. The event was attended by more than 140 judges from all jurisdictions and representatives of the High Judicial Council, Republic Prosecutor’s Office, Ministry of Justice, Judicial Academy, Office of the Serbian State Agent before the Court and civil society. The conference became a platform for an exchange of view on the matter between the Constitutional Court of Serbia and judges of courts of general jurisdiction, contributing to an inter-judicial dialogue.
The conference was opened by Mr Christos Giakomopoulos, General Director of Human Rights and Rule of Law of the Council of Europe and Mr Dragomir Milojevic, President of the Supreme Court of Cassation.
The event was organised within the framework of the Council of Europe Project Support to Effective Remedies and Mutual Legal Assistance, which is being implemented in Serbia under the joint Council of Europe and the European Union Programme “Horizontal Facility for Western Balkans and Turkey”.
