Human rights and criminal procedure – The case law of the European Court of Human Rights

This handbook is intended to assist judges, lawyers and prosecutors take account of the many requirements of the European Convention on Human Rights - both explicit and implicit - for the criminal process when interpreting and applying Codes of Criminal Procedure and comparable or related legislation.

It does so through extracts from key rulings of the European Court of Human Rights and the former European Commission of Human Rights dealing with complaints about violations of Convention rights and freedoms in the course of the investigation, prosecution and trial of alleged offences, as well as in the course of appellate and various other proceedings linked to the criminal process».

The extracts are significant not only because the mere text of the Convention is insufficient to indicate the scope of what is entailed by it but also because the circumstances of the cases selected give a sense of how to apply the requirements in concrete situations.