The Court of Justice of the European Union as a lawful judge¹
Author: Krisztián Villám
The right to a fair trial includes the right to a lawful judge. The essence of the constitutional content of the right to a lawful judge is that the constitutional assignment of a judge to a case can only be made on objective grounds by applying predetermined, general rules. In order to determine who can be considered a lawful judge in a particular case, the provisions of the procedural law in question relating to jurisdiction, competence, the rules of appeal and the requirement of a fair trial must be taken as a starting point.