The state’s obligation to guarantee a person’s right of free access to justice
The state’s obligation to guarantee a person’s right of free access to justice

Summary/Abstract: All states are obliged to guarantee a set of indispensable rights to their citizens in order to safeguard a functional society. Therefore, the state must ensure that all its citizens can benefit from economic, social or personal rights and freedoms, all of which are protected on a higher level by a set of judicial rights. In this regard, free access to justice is a primordial concern for both the state and the citizens. This fundamental right, enclosed in the European Convention of Human Rights, ensures that a person may address the national courts with any claim that person considers suitable, if one or more of that person’s rights have been prejudiced. As it must be both a constitutional principle and a fundamental right of the person, the obligation of ensuring free access to justice to citizens means that the state must set in place the legal framework, consisting of judicial and administrative norms that make bringing the claims to justice possible and accessible to all the persons.

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