Cumulative Grounds in Petitions for Appellate Review and the Right to Fair Judicial Process

Abstract

Summary After re-codification of civil law in the Slovak Republic, the rulings of the Supreme Court Special Panel are now binding on all panels of the Supreme Court. The first ruling dealt with a crucial issue of admissibility of appellate review in case of several grounds simultaneously shown in a petition for appellate review. According to the Special Panel’s opinion, cumulative grounds are not admissible either within vertical or horizontal structure. That is, it is not possible to combine the grounds for appellate review defined in the two sections of the Civil Litigation Procedure Code (§ 420 and § 421), or several grounds under the same section (§ 420). Should this occur, the court of appellate review will limit its considerations only to a procedural error specified in § 420, more specifically, the one defined earlier in order of precedence. Within a short period of time, the Supreme Court revised its opinion, and the Special Panel made a contrary ruling by which the cumulative grounds of appellate review were admitted. The purpose of this paper is to consider these two different decisions and to present also some other arguments.