Human rights have come to be an important part of EU law. Since the European Court of Justice first introduced fundamental rights protection as an integral part of the Community legal order, it has faced much criticism from both national and international lawyers as well as many other challenges. For example, the ECJ has had to find its place as a human rights court in a global society in which the European Court of Human Rights and the United Nations treaty bodies to a wide extent protect essentially the same rights. The course will provide an insight into the scope and nature of the EU human rights protection as well as comparative studies of the ECJ and the case law from other human rights institutions on selected issues.
The course will cover the following topics:
- The legal basis for the human rights protection in the EU
- The scope of the human rights protection in the EU
- The dilemma of the national (constitutional) courts
- The European Court of Justice and the European Court of Human Rights
- The European Court of Justice and the United Nations treaty bodies
- The European Charter of Human Rights