Can excessive length of proceedings be remedied?

Remedying the excessive length of proceedings is a problem common to most European states, which has received much attention in Strasbourg, thus becoming an absolute priority for the Council of Europe and its member states. With this in mind, the European Commission for Democracy through Law (Venice Commission) compiled an up-to-date inventory of the existing legislation of 47 states, a guide to the relevant case law of the European Court of Human Rights and its own assessment of and its far-reaching conclusions as to what would effectively remedy breaches of the reasonable length requirement. This publication contains firstly the Report on the Effectiveness of National Remedies in respect of Excessive Length of Proceedings adopted by the Venice Commission at its 69th Plenary Session (15-16 December 2006). The questionnaire which served as the basis for this study, as well as the replies thereto by the 47 member States of the Council of Europe appear in Section II. Finally, Section III contains the reports which were presented at the International Conference on "Remedies for unduly lengthy proceedings: a new approach to the obligations of Council of Europe member States", in Bucharest on 3 April 2006 and which provided invaluable "food for thought" for the report.

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