Summary

The role of the court and the parties in directing civil proceedings has been an important issue in European civil procedural law for at least the last couple of centuries. It has been characterised by an attempt to simultaneously balance the rights and duties of the parties and the obligations of the court. In Estonia, the active role of the court was emphasised on the legislative level in the Code of Civil Procedure that entered into force on 1 January 2006. However, attention had been paid to it in judicial practice several years before already. One of the most important manifestations of the active role of the court is its obligation to clarify. This article discusses the objective of the court’s obligation to clarify, the obligation to clarify in relation with the provision of the facts, the amendment of the object of an action and the submission of evidence as well as the clarification of the provision of law applied. The time for performing the obligation to clarify, the manner of its performance and documentation are discussed separately. The relationship of the obligation to clarify with the principle of equal treatment of parties is also examined. The article uses the judicial practice of the Supreme Court of Estonia to give an overview of the extent of the obligation to clarify.