A Right to Have One’s Case Heard within a Reasonable Time before the Czech and the Polish Supreme Administrative Courts – Standards, the Reality and Proposals for the Future

Abstract

The right to have one's case heard within reasonable time constitutes one component of an effective judicial protection. The aim of this paper is to establish the reasons for delays in proceedings before the Supreme Administrative Courts in the Czech Republic and in Poland, to analyze why they exist, and to formulate proposals on how the structural and procedural activity of these courts could be organized more effectively. The international and national standards as well as the Polish and the Czech standards pertaining to the right to have one's case heard within reasonable time and the reasons for unjustified delays will be examined, and the explanations for their occurrence will be provided. Proposals will then be formulated on how to make the procedures more effective. The ideas formulated are relevant in both countries for the two judicial systems, but also for other judiciaries, which also experience the same problems with system delays.