PROTECTION OF THE DEFENDANT’S RIGHT TO FAIR TRIAL EVALUATED TROUGH THE EXPLANATORY PARTS OF THE COURT’S BAIL DECISIONS

Abstract

Explanatory part of the court’s decisions could be considered as one of the most important parts
of these formal court’s acts where the court provides sufficient justification for its deliberation.
Usually this explanatory part provides exact reasons which should support the court’s rationale
and they should be based upon the facts that were submitted before the court. Through these parts
of the court decisions in most of the cases we can examine, particularly trough the higher court
instances, weather one criminal procedure or a specific part of it was fair and significantly
protected basic human rights.
The focal point of this article is whether this abovementioned general conclusion is obeyed by the
courts while reaching theirs formal decisions, in particularly trough the implementation of the bail.
The most recent ECtHR judgments lead to quite opposite conclusion. Therefore, in this article the
author examines the explanatory parts of the bail decisions deliberated by the largest court in
Macedonia – Skopje 1 Basic Court, in a period of the last ten years.
Author’s conclusions are in concordance with the ECtHR jurisprudence where he states that the
Basic Court Skopje 1, in most of the cases, while deliberating the implementation of the bail lacks
sufficient information and does not address proper attention to the specific personal characteristics
of the defendant while deliberating the implementation of the bail. At least it does not include these
arguments within the explanatory part of its decisions. Furthermore, from this analysis it can be
concluded that judges do not properly evaluate the potential risk factors which could have essential
importance to the proper court’s bail decision.
At the end the author provides specific recommendations for improvement of the court
performance which is essential for protection of the defendant’s right to fair trial.