Strasbourg court proves Magna Carta is still relevant in Europe

The right to a fair trial is still being regularly litigated in the UK and across Europe 800 years after it was enshrined in Magna Carta, new research shows.

A study by Thomson Reuters found that, in the last decade, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has made 19 rulings against the UK and 1,237 rulings against all EU countries for breaches of the right to a fair trial.

The principles of the right to a fair trial and to 'no punishment without law' - core elements of Magna Carta - were incorporated into the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), as articles 6 and 7 respectively, and, subsequently, the Human Rights Act.

In 2014 alone, 149 violations of the right to a fair trial were recorded by the Strasbourg court against signatory countries to the ECHR.

In the same year, the ECtHR made one ruling against signatory countries for breaches of article 7. There have been a total of 29 judgments against signatory countries for breaches of the article over the last decade.

Several significant UK cases brought to the ECtHR, based on article 6, involved issues linked to taxation, such as Minshall v UK, which involved a successful argument that confiscation proceedings following a conviction for conspiracy to evade excise duty on alcohol were excessively long.

Tom Hickman, a barrister practising from Blackstone Chambers, said: 'Commercial, tax, and employment lawyers frequently make arguments based on the right to a fair trial - a concept that was one of the most significant legacies of Magna Carta 800 years ago.'

He continued: 'The principle of right to a fair trial now governs many of the procedures of how tribunals, regulators, and the courts work and has a surprisingly wide application in commercial disputes as well as criminal cases. Clearly, to have a well-functioning economy, businesses need to know that they will receive a fair trial in their own country.

Hickman added that businesses are now more aware of how to use human rights arguments in commercial cases.

'The introduction of the Human Rights Act in the UK more than a decade ago precipitated this change, but their foundations are laid in Magna Carta,' he said. 'The principles laid out in Magna Carta are still live issues in the UK and other well-established democracies, even today.'