Type: Judgment

Authority: European Authorities: European Court of human rights

Date: 11/04/2008

Subject: The applicant, Cristina Dinu, is a Romanian national who was born in 1957 and lives in Braşov (Romania). In May 1995 Mrs Dinu obtained a final decision from the Romanian courts ordering her ex-husband, a Romanian national living in France, to pay her maintenance for their minor son. In July 1995 she commenced the procedure provided for under the New York Convention on the Recovery Abroad of Maintenance. Authority to execute the Romanian decisions was issued in April 2004 and the enforcement proceedings were terminated in September 2007 by the relevant French court, which found that the debt in maintenance arrears had been extinguished on 27 November 2006 at the latest. Relying on Article 6 § 1 (right to a fair hearing), the applicant complained of the lack of diligence by the relevant Romanian and French authorities in assisting her with enforcement of the decisions awarding her maintenance for her son. The Court found that the Romanian and French authorities had failed to use all necessary endeavours to ensure speedy enforcement of the judicial decisions given in the applicant’s favour. Accordingly, it held, unanimously, that there had been a violation of Article 6 § 1 by Romania and France

Parties: Dinu c/ Romania e Francia

Classification: Justice - Art. 47 Fair trial, public hearing