The protection of procedural rights has deep roots in the Common Law Systems. While the focus in Europe initially was on the protection of substantive rights, the influence from the Common Law Systems has contributed to an increasing emphasis on the protection of procedural rights as well.
These rights moreover appear today as one of the main illustrations of the globalization challenges and of the convergences between Legal Systems.
This seminar will first consider the scope and content of Fundamental Rights of Procedure in Common Law and Civil Law Systems and their influence on the different branches of the Law. The influence of Due Process Rights on Administrative, Criminal or Fiscal litigation, in particular, will be discussed.
A second part of the Seminar will then lead to the research in more recent constitutional systems of similar trends: Experiences in Latin America, Asia as well as South Africa, Australia or New Zealand for instance will be considered, in order to better evaluate the universalism of such rights and the importance of their implementation in modern democracies.