European Court of Human Rights - case of H v. the United Kingdom (1987) (excerpts)
European Court of Human Rights - case of H v. the United Kingdom (1987) (excerpts)
(...)
85. In the present case, the Court considers it right to place
special emphasis on the importance of what was at stake for the
applicant in the proceedings in question. Not only were they decisive
for her future relations with her own child, but they had a particular
quality of irreversibility, involving as they did what the High Court
graphically described as the "statutory guillotine" of adoption (see
paragraph 28 above).
In cases of this kind the authorities are under a duty to exercise
exceptional diligence since, as the Commission rightly pointed out,
there is always the danger that any procedural delay will result in
the de facto determination of the issue submitted to the court before
it has held its hearing. And, indeed, this was what happened here.