Access to justice in Poland and length of proceedings as the main obstacle to access to justice in Poland

Abstract

The right to access to justice is one of the fundamental human rights and can be found in most important human rights treaties. Like with almost every human right, there are a number of problems which create a gap between the reality and an ideal access to justice. As access to justice is a very complex term, also the variety of problems connected with access to justice is very broad. This paper will examine the length of proceedings as the main obstacle to access to justice in Poland. The first part of this paper is introduction of the term access to justice and different aspects of this term. First chapter includes also historical background of the access to justice. Second part, concerns law instruments, which guarantee, the right to be tried within reasonable time, as one of the crucial factors, of the access to justice. The third part includes the criteria of the right to be tried within reasonable time in jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights and deals with possible sources of the delays of the proceedings in the Polish courts. The last part concerns possible ways of improvement of the right to be tried within reasonable time in Poland.