The concept of civil rights and obligations under Article 6 of the Convention has the following dimensions: (1) the right or obligation must have a basis in domestic law; (2) it must be of civil nature; and (3) there must be a real dispute , which (4) must concern directly the applicant’s rights and obligations. All the above conditions must be fulfilled in order for Article 6 §1 to be applicable. Each of these dimensions is examined below in more detail.

WHAT ARE “CIVIL RIGHTS AND OBLIGATIONS”?

RIGHT HAVING A BASIS IN DOMESTIC LAW

The rights and obligations mentioned in Article 6 of the Convention refer to the rights and obligations guaranteed by domestic law. There must therefore be a legal basis for the right claimed by the applicant or for the obligation imposed on him or her in domestic law. The starting-point is thus the provisions of the relevant domestic law and their interpretation by the domestic courts. It is not for the Court to question the interpretation of the domestic law by the national courts, unless there are strong reasons to depart from their conclusions and to find that there was arguably a right recognised by domestic law.

Article 6 does not create any rights in the sense that it creates any new material rights which do not exist in domestic law or, as far as the EU Member States are concerned, in binding EU law. Therefore Article 6 was not applicable, for example, to a situation in which domestic law did not afford any right for a man to have his biological paternity confirmed when the child in question was born in wedlock to a mother married to another man. Article 6 is, however, applicable to disputes of a “genuine and serious nature” which concern the actual existence of a right, as well as the scope or manner in which it is exercised.