Communicated on 7 July 2020 Published on 27 July 2020

FIRST SECTION

Application no. 7011/19 Jadranka STRANCARIĆ against Croatia lodged on 30 January 2019

SUBJECT MATTER OF THE CASE

In a 1996 first-instance judgment given by Judge A.A., the applicant and her former husband were ordered to pay a debt to a third person. In subsequent enforcement proceedings concerning that judgment and another debt due from the applicant (an unpaid bank loan), the domestic court decided that the applicant ’ s house should be sold in order to repay the two outstanding debts. The applicant instituted civil proceedings, which are still pending, requesting that the enforcement be declared inadmissible. At the same, she requested stay of the enforcement, pending the outcome of the civil proceedings to declare it inadmissible. The domestic courts rejected her request for stay of the enforcement and her appeals against that decision were dismissed. Her constitutional complaint in that respect was dismissed by a panel of six judges, including Judge A.A. The applicant complains, under Article 6 § 1 of the Convention, that the Constitutional Court in her case had not been impartial because of the involvement of Judge A.A. who had already been involved in the proceedings at an earlier stage and against whom the applicant had previously lodged a criminal complaint.

QUESTION TO THE PARTIES

Having regard to the involvement of Judge A.A. in the previous proceedings, was the Constitutional Court impartial when it decided on the applicant ’ s constitutional complaint, as required by Article 6 § 1 of the Convention?