A Right to a Public Hearing in Times of Emergency – Online or Physical?

One of the fundamental principles of all court proceedings is the right to a public hearing. In times of emergency, due to health, safety or environmental conditions, this right may be reduced or even temporarily excluded. The aim of the paper is to answer whether possible restrictions of this right are in accordance with the European and national standards of the rule of law. The phenomenon of public hearings will be presented from the perspective of the administrative judiciary, whose obligation is to exercise control over public administration on a basis of legality. This phenomenon offers the potential for dispensing with public hearings to a greater extent than in the case of civil or criminal proceedings. In the paper, the detailed aspects and defects of online hearings will be analyzed. In the final part, the thesis on the significance of physical hearings will be defended. Especially in times that are not defined as emergencies, this type of hearing should prevail over the online version, being more natural and better in terms of providing both courts and parties to the proceedings broad possibilities to communicate.