Access to justice: approaches to interpretation

Abstract

Access to justice is a legal term, and this article explores its definition in detail. It looks at categories such as the court, statutory court, and access to the court. The paper examines the purpose of access to justice in general and separately and also considers trends in legal science regarding the meaning of this term. Access to justice is integral to the right to a fair trial. There is no single approach to understanding the right to access justice, and it needs a systematic study. The Convention does not define access to justice, but it is considered an essential part of Article 6 of the Convention (which covers guarantees of a fair trial). The author has carried out a fundamental verbatim analysis of Article 6 paragraph 1 (in French and English), focusing on the term «independent and impartial tribunal established by law». It was found that although the words are identical in French and English, they have different connotations. Article 6 of the Human Rights Convention and individual legal positions of the European Court of Human Rights, as well as scholarly approaches, have been thoroughly analysed to provide a broad understanding of the trial and all the actions leading up to the trial. This analysis became the basis for determining the meaning of the expression «right to access to justice», as the author did.