LA BROCCA AND OTHERS v. ITALY - 40293/98;40295/98

The European Court of Human Rights (Second Section), sitting as a Chamber composed of:

The applicants complained under Article 6 § 1 of the Convention about the length of a set of criminal proceedings. On 2 July 1998 the Commission (First Chamber) decided to join the applications and to give notice of them to the respondent Government, who were invited to submit their observations on the admissibility and merits of the applications. The Government submitted their observations on 28 October 1998 to which the applicants replied on 21 December 1998.

Following the entry into force of Protocol No. 11 to the Convention on 1 November 1998 and in accordance with the provisions of Article 5 § 2 thereof, the applications were transferred to the Court.

In accordance with Rule 52 § 1 of the Rules of Court, the President of the Court, Mr L. Wildhaber, assigned the case to the Second Section. The Chamber constituted within the Section included ex officio Mr B. Conforti, the judge elected in respect of Italy (Article 27 § 2 of the Convention and Rule 26 § 1 (a) of the Rules of Court), and Mr C. L. Rozakis, the President of the Section (Rule 26 § 1 (a)). The other

members designated by the latter to complete the Chamber were Mr M. Fischbach, Mr G. Bonello, Mrs V. Strážnická, Mr P. Lorenzen and Mrs M. Tsatsa-Nikolovska (Rule 26 § 1 (b)).