Applicability of the Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights to the Proceedings in Respect of the Cases Concerning the Administrative Offences

The right to fair trial is one of the fundamental human rights. The concept of the right to fair trial has been developing for a long time. This right was finally and fully enshrined in the European Convention on Human Rights. The issues of the applicability of the article 6 of theConvention, that enshrines right to fair trial, to the proceedings in respect of the cases concerning the administrative offences, analysis of the ECHR decisions concerning cases on fair trial by the proceedings in respect of the cases concerning bringing a person to administrative responsibility are researched in this paper. The objects which are protected in compliance with the fair trial principle are rights and obligations of civil nature as well as human rights by charging with making a criminal treat. The ECHR «automatically» interprets the term «criminal charge». The Court has created so-called Engel criteria which are to help to decide on connection of a law dispute with a «criminal charge». The first one – is categorization in domestic law. It means that the court is obliged to a comparison of the domestic law and the scope of its application with other, criminal offences within that legal system. If domestic legislation of the Contracting State classifies any kind of offence as a criminal, this criterion becomes crucial. The second criterion, which was recognized decisive by the Court, is considered to be the nature of offence. The third criterion is the severity of the penalty applied. The severity of penalty implies assessment of maximum possible penalty liable to be imposed on the offender under the applicable law. Among the decisions of the ECHR versus Ukraine on the matters of applicability of the article 6 of the Convention to the proceedings in respect of the cases concerning the administrative offences are Nadtochiy v. Ukraine, Gurepka v. Ukraine, Kornev and Karpenko v. Ukraine, Shmushkovych v. Ukraine, Luchaninova v. Ukraine and Shvydka v. Ukraine. It’s worth adopting the law on amendments to the Code of Administrative Offences of Ukraine or its new version with consideration of the ECHR case law. These measures are recommended by the Recommendation Rec (2004)5 of the Committee of Ministers to member states on the verification of the compatibility of draft laws, existing laws and administrative practice with the standards laid down in the European Convention on Human Rights.