human rights

Question 1

Internationale Handelsgesellschaft

Answer 1

• primacy over national constitutional law
• fundamental rights based on constitutional traditions of MS recognized as forming integral part of general principles of EU law
  = but caused conflict with MS courts, especially BVerfG

Question 2

Solange I

Answer 2

infamous german case expressing the threat of neglecting primacy if inalienable fundamental rights guarantees of German law are not sufficiently safeguarded under EEC law

Question 3

Solange II

Answer 3

• EEC took efforts to protect fundamental rights which were considered sufficient by Germany
• Germany stated that it wouldn’t carry out an ultimate review of fundamental rights as long as the EEC protection remains sufficient

Question 4

Art 6 TEU

Answer 4

Under Lisbon Treaty
1. primary law status of CFR
2. codification of the Internationale Handelsgesellschaft jurisprudence: fundamental rights guaranteed by the ECHR and derived from national constitutional traditions constitute general principles of EU law
3. EU shall accede to ECHR (a big problem in case law, EU still hasn’t been able to accede)

Question 5

CFR

Answer 5

• binding part of primary law with Lisbon Treaty (2009)
• modern set of fundamental rights, beyond what’s provided in ECHR (liberal, political, social, collective and solidarity rights)
• natural and legal (legal -
  not in case of personal rights) persons
• addressees (Art 51 CFR): EU institutions and bodies
  MS only when they act within the scope of union law

Question 6

relationship between CFR and ECHR

Answer 6

• principles of parallelism and non-deterioration
• in so far as the CFR contains rights which correspond to ECHR, the meaning and scope should be the same. it shouldn’t prevent EU from providing more extensive protection

Question 7

main problem in EU joining the ECHR

Answer 7

autonomy of the EU = ECHR might take precedence over EU law and CJEU law