Fundamental Rights in Europe/Funda summary (Comprehensive HC effects incl. useful schemes)
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Course
Fundamental Rights in Europe (R_FUNRE)
Institution
Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (VU)
Book
Great Debates on the European Convention on Human Rights
Fundamental Rights in Europe/Funda summary. I got a 9.0 with it myself! (Extensive HC elaborations incl. useful schematics) NB: English-language course!
Literatuursamenvatting Fundamental Rights in Europe (incl. jurisprudentie)
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Lecture notes FRE – Introduction
Learning aims:
- Clear overview of the human rights architecture in Europe
- Difference ECHR (European Convention on Human Rights) and EU Law
- Legal effect of EU Law and ECHR in domestic legal orders
Content:
- Introduction
- ECHR – The Council of Europe
- Sources of Human Rights in the EU
- Legal effect of EU Law and ECHR in domestic legal orders
- Example cases legal effect
- Finding Case Law: HUDOC and CURIA
Introduction: ECHR – EU Law
European Convention on Human Rights:
- Treaty (1950), signed by the States who are parties (Contracting Parties) to the Council of
Europe, an association of states (who stay sovereign and decide on their own legislation)
EU Law:
- Law of the European Union, a supranational legal order, which finds its origins in economic
cooperation (member states have given up on a part of their sovereignty, they can still make
their own legislation, but when it comes to certain areas they can no longer determine if
they agree or not)
Important differences between the legal orders of the EU and the ECHR!
ECHR – The Council of Europe
1. Established in 1949 by a group of 10 states to promote democracy, the rule of law,
and greater unity among the nations of Western Europe
2. Until 1990 confined to Western Europe; today: 47 Contracting Parties
3. Conditions for admission: a genuine democracy that respects the rule of law and
human rights; a party to the convention
Goals of the Council:
- The main aims of the Council of Europe are the protection and support of human rights and
parliamentary democracy
- In order to meet these goals, the Council of Europe drafted the European Convention on
Human Rights (ECHR) in 1950 and it entered into force 3 September 1953
- European Social Charter (entry into force 1965)
,Council of Europe: Institutions:
- Committee of Ministers: foreign ministers of each member state;
- Parliamentary Assembly: MPs from the parliament of each member state;
- The Congress of Local and Regional Authorities: promoting local and regional democracy,
social inclusion, etc.
- The Commissioner for Human Rights – an independent institution, promotes respect for
human rights in member states
- The European Court of Human Rights the centre to enforcing European fundamental
Rights
European Convention on Human Rights:
- Established the first international complaints procedure and the first international court of
human rights
- Transformation of abstract human rights ideals into a concrete legal framework
- Concerns over ‘’sovereignty’’ and legitimacy of the court how far can a court go into
interfering in national legislation? (to be discussed in the coming weeks)
European Court of Human Rights:
- The Convention laid down human rights and fundamental freedoms in Europe and it has
also established an enforcement mechanism through the European Court of Human Rights
(ECHR).
- As a judicial organ of the Council of Europe, it provides protection against human rights
violations most particularly by the right of individual petition
The right of individual petition:
- One of the most effective means of protecting human rights
- Essential element of the supervisory system established by the Convention
- Convention protects the rights of individuals (natural or legal persons), but not groups as
such
- Only parties who are directly affected by a violation of the rights may bring a claim in
Strasbourg, after completed national proceedings
Articles overview:
The right to life; freedom from torture and inhuman or degrading treatment; freedom from
slavery; servitude or forced labour; liberty and security of person; detention only in
accordance with procedures prescribed by law; the right to a fair and public hearing; respect
for privacy and family life; freedom of thought; conscience and religion; freedom of
expression; peaceful assembly and association; the right to marry and found a family;
freedom from discrimination
Protocols (additional provisions)
The right to property; the right to education; the obligation to hold free elections; freedom
from imprisonment for civil debts; freedom of movement and residence; freedom from
exile; no collective expulsion of aliens; abolition of the death penalty; the right to
compensation for a miscarriage of justice; immunity from double prosecution for the same
offence; equal rights and responsibility of spouses
,EU Law – European Union
- European Union is a supranational legal order which finds it origins in economic
cooperation (compare CoE)
- EU has 28 member states
- Institutions: a.o. European Commission, European Parliament, European Council, Court of
Justice of the EU (Course Introduction EU Law)
Sources of EU Law (compare CoE)
Primary law: Secondary law:
> The Treaties - is made by the Union institutions
- Treaty on European Union (TEU/VEU):
general provisions defining the Union Legal acts in art. 288 TFEU (VWEU)
- Treaty on the Functioning of the - Regulations
European Union (TFEU/VWEU): - Directives
specific provisions with regard to EU - Decisions
institutions and policies
> The Charter of Fundamental Rights of
the EU:
- Proclaimed with Treaty of Nice in 2001,
entry into force with Treaty of Lisbon, 2009:
it has the same legal value as the Treaties.
Court of Justice of the EU
- No right of individual petition against acts of national authorities you can’t make an
individual complaint
- National Courts initiate proceedings (267 TFEU) national courts ask the CoJ preliminary
questions so they can give preliminary ruling
- Harmonisation (making sure all kinds of rules are applied throughout the EU in the same
way) of EU law plays an important role in the case law of the CoJ: less reluctance to interfere
with national preferences CoJ can easily say ‘’this is the harmonized uniform
interpretation and there is no room for member states to hold different opinion’’ in contrast
to the European Court of Human Rights (who holds concerns over member states’
sovereignty and legitimacy of the court)
ECHR and EU law: legal effect in national legal order (final comparison)
ECHR:
- Monism or dualism
Depends on whether a state has a monist or dualist system.
Monism: in order for an international law provision to have effect in a national legal order it is not
necessary to transpose that international provision (national law and international law are
considered as one (no duality))
Dualism: the international provision of ECHR only applies in the national legal order after national
,legislation has transposed that provision in national law (action of the contracting party is needed
before the provision of ECHR applies in the legal order)
- Legal effect of provisions depends on national constitutional law (law says if they have a
monist or dualist system)
EU LAW:
- Direct effect (Van Gend en Loos/Van Duyn) (checking monist or dualist system is irrelevant)
- Principle of supremacy (COSTA Enel) in case of conflict between a national law and EU
law: EU law prevails
Direct effect: Van Gend en Loos (important in case member states apply incorrectly or
conflicting rules)
- Can EU law be invoked in a national court?
- Treaty/regulation has direct effect in national courts
But only if sufficiently ‘clear and unconditional’
> Clear: provision containing right/obligation sufficiently clear to be applied by a
national judge?
> Unconditional: is the obligation to act/grant a right conditional on further national
measures? (e.g. the choice of a MS to make use of an option provided for in EU
legislation) some provisions are obligated and some are not ‘’member states shall
or may do so..’’
- Why direct effect?
* ‘A new legal order… the subjects of which are not only states, but also individuals!’
* EU law is intended to give people rights
* Without direct effect, states could block those rights
Direct effect of Directives (indication of the goals that have to be met):
- Van Duyn: (parts of) directives can also have direct effect against states
- Direct effect of directives:
* only if sufficiently clear and unconditional
* only if deadline for implementation has passed
- Why?
* otherwise EU law wouldn’t be ‘’effective’’
* And later: otherwise states could profit from their own wrong
,Reasoning steps example case I:
1) It concerns a EU Directive: Van Duyn is applicable
2) Provision sufficiently clear as regards the rights/obligations?
- Identify the right/obligation: ‘’Article 6(4) imposes on MS’s the obligation to…, in
case of… ‘’
- Is this obligation sufficiently clear for a judge to allow the claim?
3) Unconditional? Is the obligation identified above conditional on the MS having adopted
national legislation/further measures? does the MS have a choice to grant the right or
fulfil the obligation or is there no room left for the MS to decide? Look at the wording of the
provision, shall or may? In this case not free to determine what to do returning or not
returning + granting authorisation
4) Implementation date? Not always given, in this case (2008/15) may be assumed that the
date has passed
5) What if the MS would not have acknowledged the applicant’s human rights arguments?
Can the applicant invoke before a national court art. 8 ECHR that covers the right to
respect for family life?
Reasoning steps example case II:
1) It concerns an appeal to the ECHR
2) Legal effect thus depends on the question whether the state has a monist or dualist
system
3) Monism: applicant can invoke art. 8 ECHR
Dualism: applicant cannot invoke art. 8 ECHR directly in national court
Finding case law: HUDOC and CURIA
ECHR cases: HUDOC
https://hudoc.echr.coe.int (use the application number to search ……/..)
CJEU cases: CURIA
http://curia.europa.eu/juris (use the case number to search C-../..)
, Lecture 1 FRE – Admissibility and Jurisdiction
Clip 1: Admissibility
Clip 2: Jurisdiction
ADMISSIBILITY
Admissibility: whether a complaint can be accepted for consideration (i.e. do the applicants
have access to adjudication?)
Why does this rule exists?
- enables courts to managing workload & maintaining subsidiary role it has (first the national
court should deal with it)
Admissibility could be seen as a barrier to individuals from accessing adjudication
Admissibility rules seem to be simple, but:
- involve some degree of judgement
- court retains discretion
- how much discretion should the court have?
Two key questions:
I. Who can apply? Art. 34 ECHR
II. What are the admissibility criteria? Art. 35 ECHR
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