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Sep 30
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FOURTH INSTANCE DOCTRINE AND THE RIGHT TO A REASONED JUDGEMENT IN THE PRACTICE OF THE EUROPEAN COURT OF HUMAN RIGHTS

Goran Dajović, Bojan Spaić

10.5937/AnaliPFB1903166D
ABSTRACT /

Right to a reasoned judgement, created by the European Court of Human Rights is used in some cases by the Court in Strasbourg to justify acting as a court of higher instance in relation to national courts regarding the article 6 of the Convention. This issue is relevant both for legal theory and legal practice, because the Court, according to the fourth instance doctrine, does not act as an instance court. By analyzing key cases, the authors show under which conditions and in what way the Strasbourg Court rules on the substance of cases. It is concluded that ECHR, in the case of the right to a reasoned judgement, does not stray from the fourth instance doctrine occasionally or by chance. A series of decisions show that the ECHR formulated the right to a reasoned judgement in such a way that the right itself deviates from the fourth instance doctrine.

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