RIGHT TO A FAIR TRIAL Costs of litigation

Abstract

There is a violation of the right to a fair trial from Article II/3e) of the Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Article 6 paragraph 1 of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms when the regular courts arbitrarily applied the provisions of the Law on Civil Procedure on reimbursement of the costs of civil proceedings. In the specific case, in the situation in which the appellant withdrew the lawsuit when the defendant fulfilled his obligation after filing the lawsuit for which the defendant gave reasons, because he was in arrears, the courts applied the provisions of the Law on Civil Procedure that regulate the issue of compensation the costs of the litigation and the plaintiff loses the litigation in its entirety, tying his decision to the moment of the start of the litigation, not the litigation. They should have applied the provision of Article 390 paragraph 1 of this law, which explicitly regulates the situation in which the plaintiff who withdraws the lawsuit is obliged to compensate the opposing party for the costs of the litigation, unless the lawsuit was withdrawn after the defendant fulfilled the request.