Reflections on the Principle of Mutual Trust in EU Law and Judicial Dialogue in Europe

Abstract

The principle of mutual trust plays an important role in EU law, especially in the area of freedom, security and justice. In its Opinion 2/13 on the planned EU accession to the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) considered the draft agreement to be incompatible with EU law, in particular because it did not sufficiently take into account the principle of mutual trust. This chapter examines whether the ECHR is, as suggested by Opinion 2/13, in fact incompatible with EU law and whether this creates an insurmountable obstacle to accession. The chapter argues that the case-law of the two European Courts, rather than confirming such inherent incompatibility, demonstrates a constructive judicial dialogue between them. This is a dialogue in which, in addition to the two supranational Courts, national courts, such as the German Federal Constitutional Court, have given their contribution. While the true nature of the principle of mutual trust in EU law remains subject to debate, close scrutiny reveals it as more of a rebuttable presumption than a full-fledged legal principle. Ultimately, the European and domestic courts involved are shown to have engaged in a useful judicial dialogue that has influenced the shaping of the principle of mutual trust in a manner that can be regarded as satisfactory from the point of view of both the ECHR and the EU.