How many times have we heard references to the right to a fair trial, but we still do not understand its meaning? In the book, the author analyses the concept, evolution, and guarantees derived from the right to a fair trial. Innovatively, he compiles and examines the different international and community legislation and doctrines that rule the Member States of the European Union.Then, the author brings together and assesses the violations declared by the European Court of Human Rights over the last six years concerning the right to a fair trial in criminal proceedings followed in EU Member States, as a method of deduction, based on objectives figures, about the level of fulfillment of the right to a fair trial in the Union, with its lights and its shadows