ABSTRACT
Paragraph 1 includes the right to start court proceedings,233 as well as the requirement that those proceedings shall be fair. The court will not however look into detailed issues such as evidence in determining whether proceedings were fair, and failure to tell a defendant of his right to silence and legal representation will not necessarily violate his right to a fair trial.234 Where the father of a child born of unmarried parents cannot challenge the placing of it for adoption by its mother, Art 6 is breached despite the father’s right to bring guardianship and custody proceedings: the child’s welfare may
right to start proceedings may be effectively denied by the fact that those proceedings are prohibitively expensive.236 Limitation periods such as the six year period in English law in respect of intentionally inflicted injury (here, child sex abuse), are not a denial of this right.237
