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I. Introduction
The right to a fair trial is a legal cornerstone of democratic societies, whose importance can hardly be overstated. The aim of this contribution is to provide the reader with an-admittedly short-overview over the protection and the enforcement of this right in Europe. The European Convention on Human Rights1 in combination with its additional protocols is the main international instrument guaranteeing the application of Human Rights in Europe. It had been concluded under the auspices of the Council of Europe in 1950 and entered into force in 1953. The Convention has now 46 Member States; its territorial scope ranges from Lisbon (Portugal) in the west to Vladivostok (Russian Federation) in the east. The ECHR is widely regarded as being the world's most effective system for the protection of human rights2 and its legal system applies to common as well as to civil law jurisdictions. The Council of Europe is legally distinct from the European Union, although the legal orders of the two organizations are not totally separated from the other, as can be inferred from art. 6 (2) TEU.3
The Convention is secured by a court mechanism. The European Court of Human Rights,4 which is located in Strasbourg, France, is the final arbiter in all cases concerning breaches of the Convention and according to art. 34, 35 ECHR individuals are entitled to have recourse to it after the exhaustion of the applicable national remedies. The Court is extremely successful and, on the flipside of the coin, totally overburdened. In 2006, 50,500 applications had been filed and the Court rendered 1,560 judgments, a 40% increase from the previous year.5
The rights enshrined in the Convention are mostly drawn from the first half of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights,6 which is a non-binding resolution of the General Assembly of the United Nations.7 The Convention rights are much more elaborated than the sister provisions of the Universal Declaration and legally enforceable. The increasing international relevance of the Convention stems from Its effective system of judicial protection and the vast case-law of the Court on the embodied human rights.9
II. Miscarriages of Justice and Procedural Rules
In the general public opinion, justice and its (eventual) miscarriage is usually connected with provisions of substantial criminal law...