Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Map
- Preface
- Abbreviations
- Table of Cases
- Table of Treaties, Instruments and Legislation
- Table of Equivalents
- Electronic Working Paper Series
- 1 European Integration and the Treaty on European Union
- 2 The EU Institutions
- 3 Union Law-making
- 4 The EU Judicial Order
- 5 The Authority of EU Law
- 6 Fundamental Rights
- 7 Rights and Remedies in National Courts
- 8 Infringement Proceedings
- 9 Governance
- 10 Judicial Review
- 11 EU citizenship
- 12 EU Law and Non-EU Nationals
- 13 Equal Opportunities Law and Policy
- 14 EU Criminal Law
- 15 External Relations
- 16 The Internal Market
- 17 Economic and Monetary Union
- 18 The Free Movement of Goods
- 19 The Free Movement of Services
- 20 The Pursuit of an Occupation in Another Member State
- 21 Trade Restrictions and Public Goods
- 22 EU Competition Law: Function and Enforcement
- 23 Antitrust and Monopolies
- 24 State Regulation and EU Competition Law
- Index
6 - Fundamental Rights
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Map
- Preface
- Abbreviations
- Table of Cases
- Table of Treaties, Instruments and Legislation
- Table of Equivalents
- Electronic Working Paper Series
- 1 European Integration and the Treaty on European Union
- 2 The EU Institutions
- 3 Union Law-making
- 4 The EU Judicial Order
- 5 The Authority of EU Law
- 6 Fundamental Rights
- 7 Rights and Remedies in National Courts
- 8 Infringement Proceedings
- 9 Governance
- 10 Judicial Review
- 11 EU citizenship
- 12 EU Law and Non-EU Nationals
- 13 Equal Opportunities Law and Policy
- 14 EU Criminal Law
- 15 External Relations
- 16 The Internal Market
- 17 Economic and Monetary Union
- 18 The Free Movement of Goods
- 19 The Free Movement of Services
- 20 The Pursuit of an Occupation in Another Member State
- 21 Trade Restrictions and Public Goods
- 22 EU Competition Law: Function and Enforcement
- 23 Antitrust and Monopolies
- 24 State Regulation and EU Competition Law
- Index
Summary
INTRODUCTION
This chapter considers EU fundamental rights law. It is organised as follows.
Section 2 considers Article 6 TEU, which sets out three dimensions to EU fundamental rights law. First, it describes a tension, because it grants the European Union an autonomous fundamental rights law, but these rights are to be derived from external sources, namely national constitutional traditions, the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Freedoms (ECHR) and the European Union Charter of Fundamental Rights and Freedoms (‘Charter’). Secondly, Article 6 TEU prescribes an institutional sensitivity to EU fundamental rights law. It is not to be used to enlarge Union competences. Finally, Article 6 TEU places the Union more firmly within the European human rights order by providing for the Union to accede to the ECHR.
Section 3 considers the rights contained within EU fundamental rights law. On the one hand, there are general principles of law derived from national constitutional traditions and the ECHR. These are non-codified and comprise civil rights, rights of defence, economic rights law and principles such as non-discrimination, legal certainty and proportionality. On the other, there is the Charter, which contains six types of right regarded as fundamental: rights to human dignity, freedoms, equality rights, solidarity rights, rights to justice and citizenship rights. Though wide-ranging, the Charter does not include certain important social rights.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- European Union LawCases and Materials, pp. 228 - 266Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2010