Legal aid in constitutional court proceedings

Comparative analysis on the relationship between access to justice and constitutional complaint procedures

Abstract

The decision of European Court of Human Rights concluding that the constitutional complaint before the Hungarian Constitutional Court can be seen as an effective domestic remedy shows the growing role of constitutional complaint procedures even in the international system of human rights protection. Consequently, it is worth examining how national laws ensure efficient access to such procedures. The current paper aims to analyse a specific aspect of this complex problem, namely, the question of legal aid in constitutional court proceedings – particularly in constitutional complaints procedures – in Germany, Austria and Hungary.