Protection of Fundamental Rights in Europe

Abstract

material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors, and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Supporting Issues

“…57 The second group of respondents underlined the fact that the cjeu has "recognised and protected rights for decades" and, not without importance, "questioned the balance of interests and rights". 58 A major concern raised by the opponents of the Treaty of Lisbon was that "the new legally binding status of the Charter would lead to an American-style legal revolution whereby the Court of Justice would have the jurisdiction to review national measures for their conformity with EU fundamental rights regardless of the absence of any link with Union law". 59 At the same time, many authors have placed the Charter within the "unsettled question of complexity inherent in talking about human rights within a framework of autonomy and supremacy".60 Thus, Alonso Garcia, commenting on Article 53 of the Charter noted that this clause, insofar as it entails the potential displacement of the instrument of which it forms part by others which offer a greater level of protection, poses in the case of the Charter a first complication in its interpretation: unlike the international treaties confined to human rights, which have the clear vocation of complementing the national system of protection, the Charter is part of a context, the Union context, which is constructed in conceptual terms as an autonomous legal order with an integrating vocation that tends to displace, by means of the principle of supremacy, the disparities between the Member States.61 Indeed, Articles 52 and 53 of the Charter raise important questions of interpretation concerning the relationship of the Charter with the echr and the ECtHR.…”