Handbook Access to Justice in Europe

Project Overview

In January 2015 HRLC was awarded a contract by the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) to write a Handbook on Access to Justice in Europe. The project was overseen jointly by the FRA and the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR).

The objective of the project was to prepare and develop a handbook on access to justice in Europe, on the basis of the relevant law of the European Union and the Council of Europe, in particular the case law of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) and the ECtHR.

The Handbook consists of a practical overview of the key European legal and jurisprudential principles in the area of access to justice. It covers the following topics: the right to a fair and public hearing before an independent and impartial tribunal; legal aid; the right to be advised, defended and represented; the right to an effective remedy; limitations on access to justice; length of proceedings; and certain selected focus areas. The Handbook was published by the FRA in 2016.