Summary

One of the objectives of the ongoing court reform is the speed of proceedings in court cases. What must be done to achieve this declared goal? At first glance, the answer is not difficult to find: one must adhere to the procedural terms set out in the Codes of Procedure. However, does speed equate merely to procedural terms? In the Estonian legal order, the reasonable speed of court proceedings is a subjective right derived from the Constitution. Although the Constitution does not name ‘reasonable speed’ expressis verbis, the Supreme Court has derived it from the interplay between § 15 (the right to judicial protection) and § 24 (the right to a fair court hearing). The nature of the speed of court proceedings is not exhausted by fundamental rights alone. Additional declared objectives of the court reform include high-quality justice that is accessible throughout Estonia, increasing the efficiency of the court system itself, and ensuring the independence and authority of the judiciary, all of which are also linked to the speed of proceedings. In this article, the author discusses the current and previous court reforms, as well as the setting of objectives in law-making in general. The author emphasises that law is created by people and is ultimately directed at people. Human behaviour is characterised by purposefulness. Therefore, it is extremely important to analyse man-made law based on its objective(s). Among the various views presented during the court reform, the author highlights those that, in his opinion, successfully create a cognitive link between the objectives of the reform and the means of achieving them. Finally, the article makes several observations concerning potential developments related to the goal of the court reform to promote the speed of adjudication.