The ECHR and contractual provisions on dispute resolution

Summary, in English

The right of access to court and the right to a fair trial are fundamental rights guaranteed in all democratic states. The basic ideas are that anyone is entitled to have a dispute heard by a court of law in a procedure that meets certain requirements, i.e., a fair trial, and that the State has a duty to make such judicial dispute-resolution procedures possible. One of the most fundamental legal provisions governing the right of access to court and the right to a fair trial is Article 6 § 1 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). However, one point of unclarity with respect to that Article is whether it encompasses a right for parties to a contract to make a voluntary and binding waiver of their right of access to court and their right to a fair trial (or, as those rights are often jointly referred to in ECHR contexts, their ‘right to a court’). That issue – whether the right to a court can be waived – is the subject of the present article.

• Author: Lotta Maunsbach
• Department/s: Department of Law; Lund University Centre for Business Law (Swedish abbr: ACLU); Dispute resolution
• Publishing year: 2019
• Language: Swedish
• Document type: Other
• Topic: Law
• Keywords: Mänskliga rättigheter; Human rights
• Status: Unpublished
• Research group: Lund University Centre for Business Law (Swedish abbr: ACLU); Dispute resolution