The right to a fair trial in private international relations: research on the scope of application of article 6 § 1 of the European Convention on Human Rights in private international law.

Summary The right to a fair trial as it results from article 6 § 1 of the European Convention on Human Rights must be applied in all international private disputes. The basis of this intervention is the objective character of the treaties relating to human rights. The responsibility of the state can be engaged as soon as the violation of the right to a fair trial is caused by the courts of a contracting state. The criterion of imputation, which expresses a causal relationship, seems sufficient to characterize the responsibility. It follows that the conditions of liability of the forum state vary according to whether the violation is directly attributable to it, or whether it results from the courts of another state: this variation reflects two types of application, "direct" or "indirect". In the first case, it is sufficient to characterize an antinomy between the rules of jurisdiction or procedure applied by the forum and the procedural guarantees. On the other hand, indirect application is also based on an analysis of the role of the forum. Thus, in matters of recognition of a foreign decision, the forum addressed waives the right to apply the procedural safeguards itself ... this waiver can only be regarded as lawful if the forum addressed monitors the application of these safeguards by the foreign court. The indirect application of the Convention therefore implies that the lawfulness of the forum's conduct must be assessed in the light of the entire situation to which the litigant is subject. Indirect effect is defined by taking into account the intervention of foreign courts. It is not a matter of attenuating the principle but of adapting it to the specific circumstances of the case. Thus, in matters of denial of justice, the forum state will only be liable if the violation of the guarantees by the foreign courts is flagrant and if the jurisdiction of its courts is capable of diminishing the effects. .