Grand chamber hearing. Refusal of appeal (I)

19 December 2008           

Disclosure of reasons for denying an appeal to the Court of Appeal. Grand Chamber 

The issue in the case was whether a decision to deny an appeal against conviction pursuant to section 321 subsection 2, first sentence of the Criminal Procedure Act, where the reasons for the decision were not disclosed except for a reference to the statutory condition that an appeal may be disallowed if the court finds it “obvious that the appeal will not succeed”, was in breach of Art 14(5) of the UN Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. A unanimous Supreme Court held that compliance with Art 14 (5) requires that the decision to disallow an appeal must be accompanied by a duly reasoned judgement, and that this must also apply as a matter of Norwegian law, see the Human Rights Act section 3. The Supreme Court quashed the decision of the Court of Appeal.

HR-2008-2175-S, case no. 2008/1360