This book provides a comprehensive explanation of what the right to a fair trial means in practice under international law. Focus on factual scenarios that practitioners may, it brings together sources and cases that define the right to a fair trial in criminal proceedings.

This work brings together the complete travaux to Article 14 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. In doing so, it contributes to a thorough and informed understanding of the right to a fair trial, the world's most litigated human right.

The right to a fair trial is the most litigated human right in the world. Understanding the right requires reference not only to its interpretation by courts, treaty bodies, rapporteurs, experts, and scholars, but also to the preparatory work of the treaty (travaux préparatoires) and the circumstances of its conclusion. This volume brings together for the first time the complete travaux to Article 14 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, with reference to the discussion regarding other articles where relevant. It traces the evolution of the text over more than a decade of the drafting process through a number of United Nations bodies. The materials reveal a lengthy and complex process of drafting the Covenant, the intentions of the delegates regarding the interpretation of certain provisions, and those issues that they left open for states parties to decide through their practice. This is a companion volume to The Right to a Fair Trial in International Law (OUP 2020).

Language and the Right to Fair Hearing in International Criminal Trials explores the influence of the dynamic factor of language on trial fairness in international criminal proceedings. By means of empirical research and jurisprudential analysis, this book explores the implications that conducting a trial in more than one language can have for the right to fair trial. It reveals that the language debate is as old as international criminal justice, but due to misrepresentation of the status of language fair trial rights in international law, the debate has not yielded concrete reforms. Language is the core foundation for justice. It is the means through which the rights of the accused are secured and exercised. Linguistic complexities such as misunderstandings, translation errors and cultural distance among participants in international criminal trials affect courtroom communication, the presentation and the perception of the evidence, hence jeopardizing the foundations of a fair trial. The author concludes that language fair trial rights are priority rights situated in the minimum guarantees of fair criminal trial; the obligation of the court to ensure fair trial or accord the accused person a fair hearing also includes the duty to ensure they can understand and be understood.

In The Right to Be Present at Trial in International Criminal Law Caleb H. Wheeler analyses how the right to be present is understood by international criminal courts and tribunals in the context of the right to a fair trial.