The Fair Trial as a Guarantee of the Administrative Procedure

This paper investigates the criteria allowing the Court to apply the guarantees of art. 6 to administrative proceedings. As a consequence of the ECtHR substantialist approach, the principles established in the European Convention on Human Rights about fair trial do not only apply to judicial proceedings. In some specific cases, these principles can in fact be applied to administrative procedures as well. Nevertheless, the application of art. 6 to administrative procedures is limited to some specific situations and is not aimed at modifying the nature of these procedures. In particular, it highlights the difference between French case-law concerning financial markets regulation authorities and the solution adopted in the Italian Grande Stevens v. Italy case. Finally, it dwells on the problematic theory of ex post “compensation” for the defaults of the administrative procedure through the process and on the concept of full jurisdiction that has been developed by the Court.