Facts
With regard to divorce proceedings concerning him, A. requested the Cantonal Court of Zug to send him all decisions issued since January 1, 2015 in various areas of family law in anonymized, digital form. The Cantonal Court dismissed the request, whereupon A. filed a complaint with the Federal Supreme Court.
The Federal Supreme Court upheld the complaint and remanded the case to the lower instance for continuation of the proceedings and a new decision.
Considerations
The Federal Supreme Court states that the principle of public administration of justice enshrined in Article 30 paragraph 3 of the Federal Constitution guarantees a fundamental right of access to all judgments after their pronouncement. However, this right is not absolute and can be restricted, in particular to protect the privacy of the parties to the proceedings.
Article 54 paragraph 4 of the Swiss Civil Procedure Code, which exempts family law proceedings from public access, refers only to the court hearing and the oral pronouncement of the judgment, but not to the obligation to make the decisions publicly accessible.
While the right of access may be subject to the proviso that the anonymization of a large number of judgments does not impose…