CASE OF JAKUB AND 109 OTHER CASES AGAINST THE SLOVAK REPUBLIC
Doc ref: 2015/02, 13960/06, 18926/07, 42774/04, 50360/08, 31651/06, 67149/01, 23865/03, 22050/05, 26456/06, 4... • ECHR ID: 001-109748
Document date: March 8, 2012
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Resolution CM/ ResDH (2012)59 [1]
Execution of the judgments of the European Court of Human Rights
110 cases against the Slovak Republic
Loading citations...The Committee of Ministers, under the terms of Article 46, paragraph 2, of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, which provides that the Committee supervises the execution of final judgments of the European Court of Human Rights (hereinafter “the Convention” and “the Court”),
Having regard to the judgments listed below, transmitted by the Court to the Committee once they had become final;
Application
Case
Judgment of
Final on
2015/02
JAKUB
28/02/2006
28/05/2006
13960/06
A.R. SPOL. S RO.
09/02/2010
09/05/2010
18926/07
BACZOVA
19/10/2010
42774/04
BÁŇAS
12/02/2008
12/05/2008
50360/08
BARTL
14/12/2010
31651/06
BERECOVA
19/10/2010
67149/01
BERKOVA
24/03/2009
24/06/2009
23865/03
BIČ
04/11/2008
04/02/2009
22050/05
BÍRO No. 3
18/05/2010
18/08/2010
26456/06
BÍRO No. 4
18/05/2010
18/08/2010
45109/06
BÍRO No. 5
18/05/2010
18/08/2010
16988/02
BOHUCKÝ
23/10/2007
23/01/2008
21371/06
BOŠKOVÁ
02/06/2009
02/09/2009
9401/07
BRUNOVA
23/11/2010
17763/07
BUBLAKOVA
15/02/2011
15/05/2011
35017/03
BUL ’ KOVÁ
12/05/2009
12/08/2009
65416/01
ÄŒAVAJDA
14/10/2008
14/01/2009
33378/06
ÄŒECHOVA
05/10/2010
21806/05
CHRAPKOVÁ
03/11/2009
03/02/2010
65422/01
DOBÁL
12/12/2006
23/05/2007
15592/03
DUDIČOVÁ
08/01/2009
08/04/2009
42561/04
ÄŽURECH AND OTHERS
07/07/2009
07/10/2009
30754/04
DVORACEK and DVORACKOVA
28/07/2009
28/10/2009
21326/07
ELIÁÅ
18/03/2008
18/06/2008
39202/04
FEKIAČ AND FEKIAČOVÁ
10/11/2009
10/02/2010
19304/04
GAJDOÅ
23/06/2009
23/09/2009
66083/01
GAŽÍKOVÁ
13/06/2006
13/09/2006
17252/04
GERSTBREIN
21/04/2009
21/07/2009
14757/06
GRAUSOVÁ
02/06/2009
02/09/2009
2010/02
HROBOVÁ
08/06/2006
08/09/2006
16933/03
HUDEČKOVÁ
02/06/2009
02/09/2009
49362/06
IVAN
14/12/2010
41523/07
J.V. AND OTHERS
23/11/2010
16126/05
JAKUBIČKA AND MAGYARICSOVÁ
18/12/2007
18/03/2008
5952/05
JANÍK
27/10/2009
27/01/2010
70798/01
JENČOVÁ
04/05/2006
04/08/2006
70985/01
JUDT
09/10/2007
09/01/2008
44286/06
KANTOROVA
14/12/2010
280/06
KASCAK
30/11/2010
34602/03
KESZELI
13/10/2009
13/01/2010
34200/06
KESZELI No. 2
21/12/2010
21/03/2011
3673/05
KIÅ
13/10/2009
13/01/2010
21692/06
KOCIANOVA
18/05/2010
04/10/2010
45167/06
KOCIANOVÁ NO. 2
18/05/2010
18/08/2010
72092/01
KOMANICKÝ NO. 3
17/06/2008
17/09/2008
70494/01
KOMANICKÝ NO. 4
22/07/2008
22/10/2008
37046/03
KOMANICKÝ NO. 5
13/10/2009
13/01/2010
56161/00
KOMANICKÝ NO.2
02/10/2007
02/01/2008
25951/06
KOMAR
26/10/2010
11051/06
KOSICKÝ AND OTHERS
11/01/2011
29749/05
KUÄŒERA
15/12/2009
15/03/2010
63959/00
KURIL
03/10/2006
03/01/2007
67039/01
KVASNOVÁ
13/06/2006
13/09/2006
52443/99
L.R.
29/11/2005
13/09/2006
39783/05
LADOMÉRY
07/04/2009
07/07/2009
77688/01
LUBINA
19/09/2006
19/12/2006
44068/02
MAGURA
13/06/2006
13/09/2006
8799/04
MAJAN
23/11/2010
23/02/2011
21057/06
MAJERÍKOVÁ
24/11/2009
24/02/2010
21076/06
MAJTAS
09/11/2010
62187/00
MALEJČÍK
31/01/2006
03/07/2006
30036/06
MARTIKÁN
20/01/2009
20/04/2009
33827/03
MATIA
27/11/2007
27/02/2008
27452/05
MOSAT ’
21/09/2010
21/12/2010
21302/02
MÚČKOVÁ
13/06/2006
13/09/2006
1494/05
NOVÁK
02/06/2009
02/09/2009
69484/01
OBLUK
20/06/2006
20/09/2006
67035/01
OREL
09/01/2007
09/04/2007
18968/05
PALDAN
15/12/2009
15/03/2010
9818/02
PALGUTOVÁ
17/05/2005
12/10/2005
11395/06
PETRINCOVÁ
08/12/2009
08/03/2010
18148/05
PINTER
14/12/2010
14/03/2011
45148/06
POBIJAKOVÁ
18/03/2008
18/06/2008
54330/00
PRELOŽNÍK
12/12/2006
23/05/2007
25657/08
RADVAK AND RADVAKOVA
11/01/2011
11/04/2011
25763/02
RAPOÅ
20/05/2008
20/08/2008
58174/00
RIŠKOVÁ
22/08/2006
22/11/2006
36818/06
ROŠKOVÁ
08/12/2009
08/03/2010
51071/06
RUSŇAKOVÁ
14/04/2009
14/07/2009
72019/01
ŠČURYOVÁ
31/10/2006
31/01/2007
72237/01
ŠEDÝ
19/12/2006
19/03/2007
50224/99
ŠIDLOVÁ
26/09/2006
26/12/2006
2132/02
SIKA
13/06/2006
13/09/2006
26840/02
SIKA NO. 3
23/10/2007
23/01/2008
44508/04
SIKA NO. 4
27/11/2007
27/02/2008
284/06
SIKA NO. 5
02/06/2009
02/09/2009
868/05
SIKA NO. 6
10/11/2009
10/02/2010
30633/06
SIROTNAK
21/12/2010
11/04/2011
58708/00
SKURČÁK
05/12/2006
05/03/2007
23865/02
ŠNEGOŇ
12/12/2006
12/03/2007
32427/06
SOFTEL SPOL. S R.O. NO. 1
16/12/2008
16/03/2009
32836/06
SOFTEL SPOL. S R.O. NO. 2
16/12/2008
16/03/2009
77690/01
SOLÁROVÁ AND OTHERS
05/12/2006
05/03/2007
39139/05
ŠPANÍR
18/12/2007
07/07/2008
36528/05
Å PATKA
15/12/2009
15/03/2010
23846/02
ŠTEFÁNIKOVÁ
23/10/2007
23/01/2008
26077/03
SYKORA
18/01/2011
40047/06
SZIGETIOVA
05/10/2010
05/01/2011
77720/01
TERÉNI
20/06/2006
20/09/2006
17709/04
TOMLÁKOVÁ
05/12/2006
05/03/2007
57986/00
TUREK
14/02/2006
13/09/2006
7408/05
URIK
21/12/2010
21/03/2011
3305/04
VIČANOVÁ
18/12/2007
07/07/2008
54826/00
VOZÁR
14/11/2006
14/02/2007
1941/06
VRABEC
30/11/2010
67036/01
VUJČÍK
13/12/2005
13/09/2006
28652/03
WEISS
18/12/2007
18/03/2008
42356/05
WOLFF
19/10/2010
7908/07
ZAREMBOVA
23/11/2010
23/02/2011
28923/06
ZONGOROVÁ
19/01/2010
19/04/2010
Recalling that a finding of violations by the Court requires, over and above the payment of just satisfaction awarded in the judgments, the adoption by the respondent state, where appropriate, of individual measures to put an end to the violations and as far as possible to remedy their consequences for the applicant and general measures to prevent new, similar violations;
Having invited the authorities of the respondent state to provide an action plan concerning the measures proposed to execute each of the judgments listed in the table above;
Having, in accordance with the Committee ’ s Rules for the application of Article 46, paragraph 2, of the Convention, examined the action report provided by the government for these cases (see appendix);
Having noted that the respondent state paid the a p plicants the just satisfaction, as provided in the judgments;
DECLARES, that it has exe r cised its functions under Article 46, paragraph 2, of the Convention in these cases and
DECIDES to close the examination thereof.
Appendix to Resolution CM/ ResDH (2012) 59
Information on the measures taken to comply with the judgments
in 110 cases against the Slovak Republic
Action report on the judgments of the Court of Human Rights
in 110 cases against the Slovak Republic concerning excessive length of civil proceedings
(the Jakub group)
Introductory case summary
These cases concern the excessive length of civil proceedings initiated between 1990 and 2000 and closed, in most of the cases, between 1999 and 2004 (violations of Article 6§1). The European Court recalled its case-law according to which certain disputes (labour law, compensation for damage resulting from an accident, parental rights) should be resolved with special diligence ( Magura , Teréni , Palgutova , Lubina , Španίr and Kuril cases).
In addition the European Court , when examining the admissibility of the application in the Jakub case, found that the practice followed by the Constitutional Court in the circumstances of that case had rendered ineffective the constitutional complaint under Article 127 of the Constitution, introduced in Slovakia in 2002, against the excessive length of judicial proceedings. In 2003 the Constitutional Court rejected the applicant ’ s request concerning the excessive length of the proceedings he had instituted on the ground that the proceedings were no longer pending before the court responsible for the alleged delays (see also §§45 and 48 of the judgment of the European Court in the Malejčík case and §§ 35 and 46 in the judgment in L.R.).
In the case of Dudičová , the European Court also found a violation of Article 13 in that the Constitutional Court had rejected the applicant ’ s claim regarding the excessive length of insolvency proceedings as manifestly unfounded, although the proceedings had been pending for five years. The European Court concluded that “the remedy under Article 127 of the Constitution, as applied in the present case, cannot be considered effective” (§§82-83).
It further noted that the domestic remedy against the excessive length of proceedings introduced in 2002 had turned out to be ineffective in a number of cases, the Constitutional Court having awarded the applicant ’ s manifestly inadequate compensation (between 5% and 25% of the amounts awarded by the European Court in comparable cases).
In addition the Mučková , Preložník , Šidlová , Komanický No.2 and Berková cases concern the absence of an effective remedy against the excessive length of the same proceedings, in that they were closed respectively before the introduction of the constitutional complaint procedure in 2002 (violations of Article 13). In the Dobál case, the European Court found that there was no effective remedy whereby the applicant might complain about the unreasonable length of proceedings stayed since 1999 (violation of Article 13). On 19/02/2003 the Constitutional Court declared his constitutional complaint inadmissible, as according to its practice, no unjustified delays could exist in proceedings while they were lawfully stayed.
The Mučková case also concerns the unfairness of proceedings in an action brought by the applicant against the state seeking compensation for non-pecuniary damage resulting from a road accident caused by an official of the Ministry of the Interior (violation of Article 6§1), in which her daughter had been seriously injured. In 1997, the court refused to grant the applicant legal aid on the ground that her action had no chance of success, without advancing any precise justification for this conclusion.
The Turek case also concerns a violation of the applicant ’ s right to respect for his private life due to the unfairness of proceedings in which he unsuccessfully challenged his registration by the former State Security Agency ( StB ) as one of their “agents” (violation of Article 8). The European Court said that when adopting lustration measures a state must ensure that, in proceedings brought in application of such measures, the persons concerned are protected by all the procedural guarantees provided by the Convention. In the Court ’ s view, the applicant had not benefited from those guarantees inasmuch as the burden of proof was laid upon him to show that he had been registered in breach of the rules applicable at the material time, i.e., the Federal Ministry ’ s guidelines of 1972 - a confidential document to which he had no access. This requirement had imposed an unrealistic burden on the applicant, in breach of the principle of equality of arms.
The Berkova case also concerns a violation of Article 8 of the Convention due to the fact that domestic courts imposed a three-year prohibition on the applicant from re-applying for restitution of full legal capacity (from 1999 to 2002), after such capacity had been removed in earlier proceedings. The European Court found that the prohibition amounted to a serious interference with the right to respect for the applicant ’ s private life which, although lawful under the legislation in force at the time, did not respond to any pressing social need and was disproportionate and unnecessary in a democratic society.
The Dvoracek and Dvorackova also case concerns also a violation of the applicant ’ s right to life (violation of Article 2) on account of the judicial proceedings concerning medical negligence leading to the death of the applicants ’ daughter having lacked promptness and reasonable expedition.
I. Individual measures
a) Length of proceedings
In 63 of the 77 cases concerned the domestic proceedings at issue were concluded. In the following 15 cases the domestic proceedings are still pending before the national courts: Hrobová , Lubina , Orel , Rišková , Softel No. 1, Softel No. 2, Dudičová , Komanický No. 2, Rapoš , Španίr , Chrapková , Keszeli , Kučera , Majeríková and Sika No. 6.
The proceedings still pending are being monitored by the Slovak authorities a proof of which are the letters of the Agent of the Government of the Slovak Republic from 3 March 2011 addressed to the respective presidents of the domestic courts in order to request information on the actual state of the proceedings pending before them. The Agent also drew their attention to the Resolution of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe CM/ ResDH (2010) 225 on the decisions of the Court in 77 cases against the Slovak Republic concerning the unreasonable length of civil proceedings and requested them to accelerate them so far as possible and to terminate them as soon as possible.
b) Other problems
Violation of Article 6§1 (right to a fair trial) in the Mučková case and violation of Article 8 in the Turek case: The applicants had the possibility to apply to have the unfair proceedings reopened under Article 228§1(d) of the Code of Civil Procedure, which provides that parties may so apply if the European Court has found a violation and if the consequences of such violation are not adequately redressed by the payment of just satisfaction. Applications to reopen must be submitted within three months counting from the date upon which the relevant European Court judgment becomes final.
Concerning the Berkova case, violation of Article 8 of the Convention, as stated at §110 of the judgment, with effect from 1 October 2004, Section 186 (3) of the Code of Civil Procedure was already amended so that the period during which a person can be prevented from claiming restoration of his or her legal capacity was reduced to a maximum of one year.
The just satisfaction awarded has been paid to the applicants.
No other individual measure appears necessary.
II. General measures
A) Measures to reduce the length of proceedings (Article 6§1)
1) Organisational measures
The following measures have been adopted by the authorities:
The Government increased the number of judges by 50 during the first quarter of 2008. In 2009 and 2010, the number of judges was increased by more than 10%.
Following the enactment of Law No. 511/2007 amending Law No. 371/2004, nine local courts have been set up and brought into service since 01/01/08.
The Minister of Justice has invited all judges to adopt a proactive and responsible approach to the fulfilment of their judicial obligations, and visits courts unannounced to verify judges ’ state of readiness for hearings.
Certain technical changes have been made to the management of the judicial system including creation of new electronic databases and a central database for the judicial system as an efficient means for users to ascertain the existence of parallel proceedings. Judges can also monitor the progress of the cases before the courts and check up on the situation of the prisoners serving their sentences.
The Ministry of Justice is currently working on a Bill for assigning the judicial groundwork to principal auxiliary judges and court registry staff enabling judges to concentrate exclusively on court decisions.
So far as staffing of courts and differences in the capacity of judges is concerned, the Slovak authorities in cooperation with presidents of the courts prepared measures for the balancing of the burdens of the respective courts and judges so that conditions for proceedings without undue delays at all courts be created. In this regard, at the meeting of the minister of justice with the presidents of regional courts and the president of the Specialised criminal court held in January 2011, a new task was assigned to the respective departments of the Ministry of Justice to be fulfilled i.e. to prepare jointly with the presidents of the courts a report considering the effect of cases, comparable courts, number of judges and requirements on the judges.
In March 2011 the Ministry of Justice published on its web site detailed statistics on the number of case filed with and handed in at courts, from which it is apparent that judges are overloaded. The minister also provided data to the presidents of all the courts. This data, as yet unpublished, clearly shows large differences between some courts. Accordingly, the aim of the minister of justice is to effectively, and so far as possible, fairly reallocate judicial and state public employee positions between the respective courts. The published data includes for example, the number of case files with the courts and the extent of their agenda handled by court officers as not all cases are dealt with by judges. The published data also clearly show the number of judges, the number of terminated and un-terminated cases at the respective courts and also, data on the length of proceedings and “unreasonably long proceedings”. The minister of justice took into consideration this data when assigning 19 free positions to judges at five regional courts, determining on assignment 7 judges to the long-time under–staffed Trnava Regional Court, 5 judges to the Bratislava Regional Court and 1 judge to the Banská Bystrica and Prešov Regional Courts. In cases where delays have been found in the proceedings to an evidently large extent, personal consequences have been drawn against the presidents of the courts.
2) Procedural changes
Two legislative amendments have been made in the last few years:
1) A set of amendments adopted as Law No. 273/2007, which came into force on 01/07/07 (“little” amendment of the Code of Civil Procedure), which amended Law No. 99/1963 of the Code of Civil Procedure. It also amended Law No. 71/1992 on court costs. The “little” amendment was intended to introduce eight changes in civil procedure so as to improve the functioning of the courts. These changes comprise four administrative measures on allocation of powers, procedures for the service of documents, management of case files in courts of appeal and simplification/reduction of court costs.
There have also been four substantive changes in the Code as regards judicial procedure:
- Article 16: harmonisation of the time-limits for challenging judges with those for bringing appeals. Allegations of bias will no longer be examined under a separate procedure but among the principal grounds of appeal;
- Article 214: courts of appeal can rule on a larger number of issues without holding a hearing, in restricted circumstances which include the parties ’ consent not to hold a hearing and subject to a verification of the considerations of public interest which arise;
- Articles 250f(3) and 250ja(3): amplification of the class of cases that may be determined without a hearing by administrative courts, when the decision of an administrative authority should manifestly be set aside;
- Article 250t(2): in proceedings brought against the administrative authorities, the public prosecutor may lodge with the court an application to compel the administration concerned to act and to take a decision.
2) An amendment to the Code of Civil Procedure (No. 384/2008), which came into force on 15/10/2008 (“big” amendment of the Code of Civil Procedure) introduced changes including:
- Articles 15 (1) and (2) and 16 (3): harmonisation of the procedure for challenging judges so as to obviate the referral of the case to another judge who might also be concerned by allegations of bias, and enable the court to continue dealing with the case (though without deciding on the merits), on condition that the allegations of bias are ill-founded;
- Article 29a (1) and (2): possibility for courts to appoint joint counsel for several parties to the proceedings in cases with over twenty plaintiffs or respondents, making it possible in particular to expedite proceedings when a party has died and has no known heirs; if a party objects to the appointment of the joint counsel, the dispute in that regard can be disjoined and determined under a separate procedure;
- Articles 38 (1), (2) and (5) and 175cza (7): simplification of the procedure on inheritance which a notary conducts by permission of the court, being able to issue certificates of succession;
- Article 45 (3) to (6): possibility for the parties to proceedings to serve and to be served documents electronically;
- Articles 114 (1) and (3) to (6) and 115a (2): extension of the possibility for the court to determine a case without a hearing, and introduction of a simplified procedure for the settlement of minor litigation; the first amendment provides scope for frustrating dilatory tactics by parties to proceedings failing to make their submissions or to take delivery of their mail (a judgment by default is nevertheless hedged with guarantees of due process: it is delivered publicly and may be set aside at appeal);
- Articles 172 (5) and (6) and 174b (1): extension of the scope of the legal rules governing court orders, so that courts are authorised to issue not only an order to pay but also an injunction to take or refrain from action;
- Article 221 (1) (h): limitation of the possibility for courts of appeal to challenge the decisions delivered at first instance and to refer them back for review; such referral is henceforth possible only where the court of first instance has both wrongly established the facts and misapplied the law;
- Article 243b (1) to (4) and (6): introduction of the principle of review in proceedings before the Court of Cassation, enabling it to rectify certain decisions which are appealed on points of law instead of overturning them and referring them to a court below for review.
3) Publication and dissemination of the Court ’ s judgments: The judgments of the Court against the Slovak Republic are regularly published in the journal Justičná revue.
4) Effectiveness of the measures adopted
The average length of civil proceedings in the last few years is as follows:
2002 15.18 months
2003 16.56 months
2004 17.56 months
2005 16.86 months
2006 15.40 months
2007 15.06 months
2008 14.07 months
2009 13.00 months
2010 11.77 months
B) Measures for bringing an effective domestic appeal in the event of excessively lengthy civil proceedings (Article 13)
A reform to the Constitution in 2002 introduced a constitutional petition for complaints of violations of human rights protected by international treaties. The European Court has already observed on various occasions that this new procedure represents an effective remedy within the meaning of Article 13 of the Convention (see in particular the decision on admissibility in the case of Andrášik and others of 22/10/2002).
1) Constitutional Court practice of dismissing appeals where the case is no longer pending before the court responsible for alleged delays
Examples of Constitutional Court judgments in 2003 and 2005 illustrate a development in the practice of this court, which is to have regard to the length of the proceedings before several courts in examining the appeal. The practice of the Constitutional Court which the European Court criticised (see in particular Jakubίčka and Magyaricsová ) was followed sporadically during the first five years of operation of the new remedy and was due to the legislative changes. The present tendency of the Constitutional Court is to follow the requirements deriving from the case-law of the European Court .
In addition, the Jakub and Malejčík judgments were circulated to the Constitutional Court . The Malejčík judgment was published in Justičná revue, No. 6-7/2006.
2) Inadequacy of the amounts awarded in compensation by the Constitutional Court
On 07/11/2008, the Agent of the Slovak Republic before the Court organised a seminar in conjunction with the EUROIURIS Centre for European law. The seminar took place in the Constitutional Court of the Slovak Republic with the participation of the Constitutional Court ’ s legal advisers. Emphasis was placed on the inadequacy of the compensation awarded by the Constitutional Court in cases concerning excessive length of proceedings. Participants ’ attention was drawn to the relevant case ‑ law of the European Court and to an analysis of the individual Slovak cases concerned.
On 08/01/2010 twelve examples of decisions delivered by the Constitutional Court between 17 February and 10 September 2009 were submitted, concerning appeals against the length of civil proceedings. Compared to what may be awarded by the Court in this type of case, the amounts awarded by the Constitutional Court are as follows: in five cases they vary from 25% to 42%, in five more from 46% to 74%, and in two they remain above 100%.
3) Constitutional Court practice regarding dismissal of appeals concerning suspended proceedings
On 02/09/2008 the judgment in the Dobál case was transmitted to the Constitutional Court in a circular of the Agent of the Government of the Slovak Republic . The President of the Constitutional Court was asked to inform all this court ’ s judges of the decision in order to avert similar violations.
Five examples of decisions (III. ÚS 241/09 of 25 November 2009, III. ÚS 247/2010 of 25 August 2010, III. ÚS 221/2010 of 25 August 2010, II. ÚS 103/06-26 of 24 May 2006, IV. ÚS 177/03 of 25 February 2004) delivered by the Constitutional Court illustrate the changed practice of the Constitutional Court, which is to have regard to the entire length of the proceedings suspended before lodging constitutional complaints on undue delays in the proceedings.
4) Constitutional Court practice to determine the length of proceedings
Four examples of decisions (II. ÚS 12/09 of 3 March 2009, I. ÚS 210/2010 of 1 July 2010, I. ÚS 108/2010 of 9 June 2010, II. ÚS 256/2010 of 1 July 2010) delivered by the Constitutional Court illustrate a development in the practice of this court in cases similar to the Dudičová case, in which the European Court held that the applicant did not have an effective remedy because of the Constitutional Court ’ s practice of dismissing petition where the length of the proceedings had not been considered great enough to justify the complaint.
5 ) Ineffectiveness of the Constitutional Court ’ s orders to courts to expedite proceedings which have incurred significant delays
Among the decisions submitted on 08/01/2010, the Constitutional Court directed the trial courts - in all cases still pending (ten) - to proceed without delay.
In April 2010 a system was established for following up Constitutional Court decisions finding excessive length of proceedings and ordering that they be expedited. Under this programme, the Constitutional Court and several other authorities (Ministries of Justice and the Interior, Supreme Court, State Counsel General, bar association and Mediator) have committed themselves to joint action to eliminate the delays in civil proceedings. The Constitutional Court keeps a register of the cases which disclose excessive length of proceedings and are still pending before the courts. These cases are then closely monitored by the Ministry of Justice and the presiding judges of the courts. Disciplinary penalties may be imposed on judges and lawyers. The Constitutional Court is informed at regular intervals of the state of the proceedings in question.
As to the system of supervision of constitutional decisions from April 2010, on the initiative and conduct of the President of the Constitutional Court of the Slovak Republic the project named “Effectiveness of the execution of the decisions of the Constitutional court of the Slovak Republic in the proceedings on the complaints by natural persons and legal entities (specific control of constitutionality) in causal link with the principle of presumption of the state ’ s fault (general courts and law enforcement authorities)” is in place, the aim of which is to implement the execution of decisions of the Constitutional Court more effectively, prevent repeated occurrence of undue delays in civil and criminal proceedings, secure more precise conduct and supervision activity in the general courts in specific cases through coordinated conduct with interested parties, instigate the disciplinary proceedings against judges (prosecutors, investigators) following the fulfilment of the conditions – subjective delays and unprofessionalism, prevention of applying legal responsibility against the Slovak Republic on the ground of violating human rights and fundamental freedoms of applicants.
In 2009 a total of 252 judgments of the Constitutional Court became final where it found a violation of the fundamental right to a hearing without undue delays and within a reasonable time. In 240 cases the applicants were awarded financial satisfaction. From the total number of 252 final judgments concerning 252 proceedings before the general courts 109 were finally terminated. The impact of the above-mentioned project is as follows: after approximately 12 months following the period under evaluation, 43% of monitored cases have been finally terminated.
In the 1st half of 2010 a total of 98 judgments of the Constitutional Court became final where the Constitutional Court found a violation of the fundamental right to a hearing without undue delays and within reasonable time. From the total number of 98 final judgments concerning 98 proceedings before general courts were 21 proceedings finally terminated. The impact of the above-mentioned project is as follows: after approximately 6 months following the period under evaluation, 21% of monitored cases have been finally terminated.
C) Measures concerning other problems identified by the European Court
Concerning the unfairness of proceedings in the Mučková case, on 10/10/2006, the European Court ’ s judgment, together with a circular by the Minister of Justice, was sent out to regional courts, with a request to inform district court judges. The judgment in the Múčková case and published in Justičná Revue No.10/2006.
Concerning the violation of Article 8 in the Turek case, the Lustration Act of 1991, which provided that certain important posts in state institutions could only be held by persons who had not been “agents” of the StB , ceased to have effect in Slovakia on 31/12/1996 (§74 of the European Court ’ s judgment). Concerning the problem of the burden of proof in disputes about the protection of personal integrity, Section 200i of the Code of Civil Procedure, which provided the obligation of the defendant to propose to the court possible evidence supporting the defendant ’ s allegations, was repealed as of 20/12/1997 following a judgment of the Constitutional Court of 11/11/1997. The judgment has been published in the legal journal Justična Revue, No 6-7/2006. To avoid further similar violations, the Minister of Justice has sent out a circular to the presidents of regional courts requesting them to distribute the judgment to all judges of these courts as well as to the district courts in their jurisdiction.
Concerning the Berkova case, in respect of the violation of Article 8 of the Convention, the Government point out that, as stated at §110 of the judgment, with effect from 1 October 2004, Section 186 (3) of the Code of Civil Procedure has been already amended in that the period during which a person can be prevented from claiming restoration of his or her legal capacity was reduced to a maximum of one year. Therefore, there is no need to adopt legislative changes or other measures.
III. Conclusions of the respondent state
The government considers that the measures adopted have fully remedied the consequences for the applicants of the violation of the Convention found by the European Court in these cases, that these measures will prevent similar violations and that Slovakia have thus complied with their obligations under Article 46, paragraph 1, of the Convention.
Marica Pirošíková
Agent of the Government of the Slovak Republic before the European Court of Human Rights
[1] Adopted by the Committee of Ministers on 8 March 2012 at the 11 36 th Meeting of the Ministers’ Deputies .