Arresten:
• Sunday times v UK
• Volker and Marcus Schecke Gbr and Hartmut eifert v Land Hessen
EU is not a formal party to the ECHR. Because of this, Member States could escape the
obligations under the Convention by transferring powers to the EU. To prevent this, the
Convention accepted the indirect review of Union acts. The doctrine of direct responsibility of
Member States of the Union was created, so that Member States would still be indirectly
responsible for the obligations under the Convention.
Member States are not responsible for every Union act that violated the Convention.
If the Union protected human rights in the same way as the Convention, the Court of Human
Rights presumed that the States had not violated the Convention by transferring powers to the
Union. This presumption leads to a lower review standard, which is the compromise between 2
extremes:
• No control because the Union is not member
• Full control even in situations in which the Member States can’t be blamed.
This compromise resulted in a level of control over the EU, while respecting its autonomy as a
separate legal order.
External standard imposed by the Convention after an eventual accession:
The indirect review will cease once the Union becomes a member of the Convention. Accession
will widen the scope of application of the Convention to include direct Union action. In situations
where the Union acts directly upon an individual without any mediating Member State measures,
this Union act could not be indirectly reviewed. Because of the absence of a connecting factor to
one of the Member States, the Union act is outside the Convention’s jurisdiction. This will change
once the Union becomes a member of the Convention, and thereby all direct Union actions would
fall within the jurisdiction of the Court of Human Rights.
Goal of Art. 52 Charter EU:
• To set the scope of the rights and principles of the Charter
• To give rules for their interpretation.
Different paragraphs:
• Paragraph 1: is about the arrangements for the limitation of rights. Its system is based on the
case-law of the Court of Justice
• Paragraph 2: goes on rights that were already explicitly guaranteed in the Treaty establishing
the European Community and have been recognized in the Charter
• Paragraph 3: function is to safeguard the consistency between the Charter and the ECHR by
giving the rule that rights, which are present in the Charter as well all guaranteed by the ECHR,
have the same scope and meaning
• Paragraph 4: holds a rule under which the Charter rights concerned should be interpreted in a
way that offers a high standard of protection which is adequate for the law of the Union and in
line with the common traditions of the constitution.
• Paragraph 5: the distinction between rights and principles in the Charter is clarified.
• Paragraph 6: refers to the several Articles in the Charter that make a reference to national law
and practice
One stage rights (absolute rights): narrow interpretation.
, Two
stage
rights:
not an
absolute
right,
rights can
be limited.
Not every
interference is a violation. Only an unlawful interference is a violation. Avoid a narrow
interpretation of scope.
Art. 52(1) Charter EU: all the exceptions possible for the charter (rechtvaardigingsgronden).
• Sunday times v UK
• Volker and Marcus Schecke Gbr and Hartmut eifert v Land Hessen
EU is not a formal party to the ECHR. Because of this, Member States could escape the
obligations under the Convention by transferring powers to the EU. To prevent this, the
Convention accepted the indirect review of Union acts. The doctrine of direct responsibility of
Member States of the Union was created, so that Member States would still be indirectly
responsible for the obligations under the Convention.
Member States are not responsible for every Union act that violated the Convention.
If the Union protected human rights in the same way as the Convention, the Court of Human
Rights presumed that the States had not violated the Convention by transferring powers to the
Union. This presumption leads to a lower review standard, which is the compromise between 2
extremes:
• No control because the Union is not member
• Full control even in situations in which the Member States can’t be blamed.
This compromise resulted in a level of control over the EU, while respecting its autonomy as a
separate legal order.
External standard imposed by the Convention after an eventual accession:
The indirect review will cease once the Union becomes a member of the Convention. Accession
will widen the scope of application of the Convention to include direct Union action. In situations
where the Union acts directly upon an individual without any mediating Member State measures,
this Union act could not be indirectly reviewed. Because of the absence of a connecting factor to
one of the Member States, the Union act is outside the Convention’s jurisdiction. This will change
once the Union becomes a member of the Convention, and thereby all direct Union actions would
fall within the jurisdiction of the Court of Human Rights.
Goal of Art. 52 Charter EU:
• To set the scope of the rights and principles of the Charter
• To give rules for their interpretation.
Different paragraphs:
• Paragraph 1: is about the arrangements for the limitation of rights. Its system is based on the
case-law of the Court of Justice
• Paragraph 2: goes on rights that were already explicitly guaranteed in the Treaty establishing
the European Community and have been recognized in the Charter
• Paragraph 3: function is to safeguard the consistency between the Charter and the ECHR by
giving the rule that rights, which are present in the Charter as well all guaranteed by the ECHR,
have the same scope and meaning
• Paragraph 4: holds a rule under which the Charter rights concerned should be interpreted in a
way that offers a high standard of protection which is adequate for the law of the Union and in
line with the common traditions of the constitution.
• Paragraph 5: the distinction between rights and principles in the Charter is clarified.
• Paragraph 6: refers to the several Articles in the Charter that make a reference to national law
and practice
One stage rights (absolute rights): narrow interpretation.
, Two
stage
rights:
not an
absolute
right,
rights can
be limited.
Not every
interference is a violation. Only an unlawful interference is a violation. Avoid a narrow
interpretation of scope.
Art. 52(1) Charter EU: all the exceptions possible for the charter (rechtvaardigingsgronden).
