Draft Constitutional Treaty of the European Union and Human Rights
##plugins.themes.bootstrap3.article.main##
Abstract
The debated Draft constitutional treaty of the EU has both confirmed and denied certain hypothesis, statements of politicians and scholars relating to the future EU, its institutional structure and the values that it is grounded upon.
Analysing human rights problems in the EU law I have opined that it would be reasonable to fully incorporate the EU charter on fundamental rights to the draft constitutional treaty. The major arguments for this idea were: it would reflect the already existent constitutional traditions of the member states, because all constitutions of the member states contain a chapter on human rights and freedoms. Consequently, in the light of the state practice it might be claimed that human rights and freedoms constitute a subject matter to be governed by the constitution as a basic law. Furthermore, enshrining human rights and freedoms on a constitutional level grants priority to human rights and elevates them to a higher legal level.
I am pleased to note that the 2nd working group on the future of the European Charter of fundamental rights was unanimous in its consideration of the recommendations on the manner of incorporation of the Charter to the Constitution. The members of the group supported the idea of incorporation of the Charter in such a form which would make the Charter legally binding and would grant it a constitutional status [1, 22]. The position of the group was that such a ‘basic category’ as fundamental human rights should find their way in the Treaty on EU constitution. Draft Article 7 of the Constitutional Treaty provides that “the Union shall recognise the rights, freedoms and principles set out in the Charter of Fundamental Rights which constitutes Part II of the Constitution.“ It follows that Part II of the Draft Treaty establishing the Constitution for Europe in corpore encompasses the Charter of the fundamental rights.
Such a resolution of the issue has once again reaffirmed that respect to human rights is of an exceptional importance in the EU scale of values.
The article focuses on two questions: general issues of rights and freedoms enshrined in the EU fundamental Charter, with a particular emphasis on the questions of legal technique formulating certain rights and freedoms, their scope, and a possibility to improve it, and also the problems concerning the enforcement of the rights enshrined in the Charter.
Analysing human rights problems in the EU law I have opined that it would be reasonable to fully incorporate the EU charter on fundamental rights to the draft constitutional treaty. The major arguments for this idea were: it would reflect the already existent constitutional traditions of the member states, because all constitutions of the member states contain a chapter on human rights and freedoms. Consequently, in the light of the state practice it might be claimed that human rights and freedoms constitute a subject matter to be governed by the constitution as a basic law. Furthermore, enshrining human rights and freedoms on a constitutional level grants priority to human rights and elevates them to a higher legal level.
I am pleased to note that the 2nd working group on the future of the European Charter of fundamental rights was unanimous in its consideration of the recommendations on the manner of incorporation of the Charter to the Constitution. The members of the group supported the idea of incorporation of the Charter in such a form which would make the Charter legally binding and would grant it a constitutional status [1, 22]. The position of the group was that such a ‘basic category’ as fundamental human rights should find their way in the Treaty on EU constitution. Draft Article 7 of the Constitutional Treaty provides that “the Union shall recognise the rights, freedoms and principles set out in the Charter of Fundamental Rights which constitutes Part II of the Constitution.“ It follows that Part II of the Draft Treaty establishing the Constitution for Europe in corpore encompasses the Charter of the fundamental rights.
Such a resolution of the issue has once again reaffirmed that respect to human rights is of an exceptional importance in the EU scale of values.
The article focuses on two questions: general issues of rights and freedoms enshrined in the EU fundamental Charter, with a particular emphasis on the questions of legal technique formulating certain rights and freedoms, their scope, and a possibility to improve it, and also the problems concerning the enforcement of the rights enshrined in the Charter.
##plugins.themes.bootstrap3.article.details##
Section
Articles
Authors contributing to Jurisprudence agree to publish their articles under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Public (CC BY-NC-ND) License, allowing third parties to share their work (copy, distribute, transmit) and to adapt it, under the condition that the authors are given credit, and that in the event of reuse or distribution, the terms of this licence are made clear.
Authors retain copyright of their work, with first publication rights granted to the Association for Learning Technology.
Please see Copyright and Licence Agreement for further details.
Authors retain copyright of their work, with first publication rights granted to the Association for Learning Technology.
Please see Copyright and Licence Agreement for further details.
