The Evolution of Human Rights Protection within the EU Legal System

• Main Author: Tăbușcă Silvia
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Danubius University 2012-05-01
• Series: EIRP Proceedings
• Subjects: human rights; Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union; EU law; Court of Justice of the European Union; European acquis
• Online Access: http://www.proceedings.univ-danubius.ro/index.php/eirp/article/view/1278/1175

Having in mind the EU’s policy to rebuild the democratic systems within the former Europeancommunist countries and its involvement in international actions regarding human rights enforcement, thereis no doubt about the importance of individuals rights protection in the European Union’s legal system. In thisrespect, the present paper analyzes the evolution of the principle of EU’s human rights protection. Theresearch done on the EU legislation and courts’ jurisprudence shows that there are three main stages related tothe EU evolution of human rights protection: first – the rejection, by the ECJ, of human rights principle aspart of Community Law; second - its acceptance, recognition and protection by the EU’s judges; third - theregulation and monitoring of the fundamental rights and freedoms at the European level. Based mainly on theECJ’s jurisprudence, this paper tries to answer the following questions: What was the political motivation notto explicitly protect human rights through the coafnstituent treaties? What was the contribution of ECJ toremedy this situation? How the European acquis was developed in order to guarantee the principle offundamental rights? What is the current state of EU legislation for guaranteeing human rights within theEuropean legal order?