 They therefore issued a declaration of incompatibility under the Human Rights Act 1998 s 4.Lord Nicholls (with whom Lords Hobhouse, Hope, Rodger and Scott delivered concurred) held that the Consumer Credit Act 1974 s 127(3) was not incompatible with the ECHR.On art 6 ECHR he emphasised that the right to a fair trial is a procedural right, not a substantive right, and that because the pawn brokers were not denied access to court, but only precluded in their substantive right of having a binding agreement, art 6 was not engaged.