Abstract
The European countries are obliged to fulfill the provisions of the European Convention on human rights regarding the protection of the accused rights' and ensuring the principle of fair trial. Nowadays, because of the economic crisis more people are affected by poverty and many immigrants enter Europe. Poor and immigrants who break the law cannot afford to pay for the services of a lawyer and for the most of them the states provide legal aid assistance. This chapter indicates that in order to safeguard the accused rights' it is mandatory for the legal aid lawyer to defend the accused effectively, otherwise the protection is just formal and does not fulfill the substantive conventional obligation of the State for fair trial. It is proposed for the States to establish qualitative criteria for the legal aid lawyers. The voluntary character of the legal aid scheme imposes an imperative duty for the lawyers to ensure fair trial for the poor.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | Police Brutality, Racial Profiling, and Discrimination in the Criminal Justice System |
| Publisher | IGI Global |
| Pages | 254-273 |
| Number of pages | 20 |
| ISBN (Electronic) | 9781522510895 |
| ISBN (Print) | 9781522510888 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 17 Nov 2016 |
