The origins and development of Article 16 of the Charter of fundamental rights

Published online: 25 March 2024When the Charter of Fundamental Rights was published in 2000, it was the first time that an international human rights instrument had recognised the freedom to conduct a business. To understand how conducting a business came to occupy the status of a fundamental right, I undertake an examination of the drafting process of Article 16 in Section 2. Early drafts protected the freedom to pursue an occupation, before the freedom to conduct a business eventually became a freestanding entitlement. This was thanks to the influence of Convention members associated with the European People’s Party who were instrumental in ensuring Article 16 was added to the draft Charter. In Section 3, I critically assess the claim contained in the Explanations to the Charter that Article 16 was simply a codification of pre-existing entitlements deriving from the case law of the Court of Justice. In Section 4, I examine the impact of Article 16 Many of the limitations that constrain the scope of Article 16 have been weakened, or have not proved to be the limitations that were originally envisaged. The Court of Justice’s defence of select areas, such as consumer protection, has shielded the deregulatory potential of Article 16 from view. Yet Article 16 has had a real and damaging impact on workers’ rights across the Union. Protecting the freedom to conduct a business in Article 16 means that a remarkably broad range of actions taken in the course of running a business are now accepted as the exercise of a fundamental right.This article was published Open Access with the support from the EUI Library through the CRUI - CUP Transformative Agreement (2023-2025

The decline of Article 26: reforming abstract constitutional review in Ireland

Ireland’s abstract review mechanism contains a design choice that appears to have had a significant impact on how it is used: under Art. 34.3.3, Bills which are found to be constitutional under the Art.26 procedure are permanently immune from further legal challenge. I suggest that the immunity provision under Art. 34.3.3 be abolished to encourage the President to avail of the Art.26 mechanism, removing one of the design features of Ireland’s form of abstract review linked to its decline. In Part 1, I outline the concept of abstract review and examine how Ireland’s abstract review mechanism has operated in practice. In Part II, I argue that the immunity in in Art. 34.3.3 is theoretically inconsistent with the ‘living Constitution’ approach adopted by the Irish courts and, at a practical level, it appears to have discouraged the President from referring Bills to the Supreme Court. I argue that the decline in Art.26 references has been aided by the weight afforded by the Government to legal advice from the Attorney General. The comparable convenience of sounding out legal advice has meant that the Government is less inclined to use their soft power to encourage the exercise of the Art.26 reference procedure. In Partt III, I propose the abolition of Art 34.3.3 to encourage greater use of the Art.26 mechanism

Shielding the market from the masses : economic liberalism and the European Union

Published online : 09 December 2021In a well-known ancient fable, one child topples the myth that has captivated the masses by pointing out: the emperor has no clothes. Michael a. Wilkinson is here, in his outstanding new book, telling us the unvarnished truth about the European union. he is one of the first scholars to depict, with devastating clarity, what has been perfectly plain to see all along. the European union is not the world’s greatest champion of democracy, despite decades of academic contortions to explain why its famous democratic deficit can be mended, or does not exist, or does not matter. the EU's rhetorical commitment to human rights, or the welfare of the member states, or to any of the abstract political ideals it claims to embody are secondary to its core purpose: to advance the project of economic liberalism. this is a project that has been pursued at all costs, even up to the point of inflicting immense suffering on the populations of the member states it claims to protect. authoritarian liberalism and the transformation of modern Europe charts the history and development of the organisation now known as the European union, and traces the corresponding role of legal scholars in providing the theoretical basis for its actions

Review: Joseph Fishkin and William E. Forbath, the anti-oligarchy constitution

Shielding the market from the masses: economic liberalism and the european union In The Anti-Oligarchy Constitution, Joseph Fishkin and William E. Forbath offer a road map for modern-day progressives concerned with ever-increasing economic inequality. The US Constitution does not simply permit wealth redistribution, they argue, it demands it. Fishkin and Forbath seek to revive long-forgotten constitutional discourse that views constraining concentrations of wealth as necessary for the preservation of a democratic republic, which should inform how every provision of the Constitution is interpreted. This is what Fishkin and Forbath describe as the “democracy of opportunity” tradition

Patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) in paediatric ophthalmology: a systematic review

Aim: To identify patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) specifically developed and used to assess the impact of ophthalmic disorders in children and to systematically assess their quality as a basis for recommendations about their use in clinical and research settings. Methods: A systematic review of the literature was performed in MEDLINE, EMBASE, PsychINFO, CINAHL and AMED, supplemented by a grey literature search. Papers reporting development and validation of questionnaire instruments for assessing patient-reported outcomes of an ophthalmic disorder in patients aged 2–18 years were included. Quality was assessed by examining the purpose and psychometric properties of the instruments. Strengths and limitations were summarised with recommendations regarding use. Results: Search identified 17 instruments. Of these, 11 were condition-specific and six were intended for a broader population of children and young people with visual impairment regardless of the ophthalmic condition. Three were developed for use in a specific trial and two are still in development. Conclusions: Paediatric ophthalmology PROM development and application is a developing field and new instruments are needed. There is scope for improvement in this area through (a) clarity of definitions of the underlying constructs intended to be measured at the onset of development of new instruments, (b) application of child-centred approaches and (c) adherence to extant guidance and best practice in questionnaire instrument development

Self-reported health experiences of children living with congenital heart defects: Including patient-reported outcomes in a national cohort study

Background: Understanding children’s views about living with congenital heart defects (CHDs) is fundamental to supporting their successful participation in daily life, school and peer relationships. As an adjunct to a health and quality of life outcomes questionnaire, we asked school-age children who survived infant heart procedures to describe their experiences of living with CHDs. Methods: In a UK-wide cohort study, children aged 10 to 14 years with CHDs self-completed postal questionnaires that included an open question about having a ‘heart problem’. We compared the characteristics of children with more and less severe cardiac diagnoses and, through collaborative inductive content analysis, investigated the subjective experiences and coping strategies described by children in both clinical severity groups. Results: Text and/or drawings were returned by 436 children (246 boys [56%], mean age 12.1 years [SD 1.0; range 10–14]); 313 had less severe (LS) and 123 more severe (MS) cardiac diagnoses. At the most recent hospital visit, a higher proportion of the MS group were underweight (more than two standard deviations below the mean for age) or cyanosed (underweight: MS 20.0%, LS 9.9%; cyanosed: MS 26.2%, LS 3.5%). Children in the MS group described concerns about social isolation and feeling ‘different’, whereas children with less severe diagnoses often characterised their CHD as ‘not a big thing’. Some coping strategies were common to both severity groups, including managing health information to avoid social exclusion, however only children in the LS group considered their CHD ‘in the past’ or experienced a sense of survivorship. Conclusions: Children’s reported experiences were not dependent on their cardiac diagnosis, although there were clear qualitative differences by clinical severity group. Children’s concerns emphasised social participation and our findings imply a need to shift the clinical focus from monitoring cardiac function to optimising participation. We highlight the potential for informing and evaluating clinical practice and service provision through seeking patient-reported outcomes in paediatric care

Confronting emergency politics

Published online: 11 November 2022In September 2020, ahead of a trip to Dublin, the EU Economy Commissioner, Paoli Gentiloni, described the imposition of austerity in Ireland as a ‘mistake'. Footnote 1 This remarkable admission caused barely a ripple, either in Ireland or across the European Union. There were no public protests, no outcry from political parties, no complaints from the media or civil society groups. No one seemed to want to know why, less than a decade before, the public had been unequivocally informed that there was no alternative to the punitive cutbacks in state spending that had caused widespread devastation. Perhaps drawing attention to Commissioner Gentiloni’s remarks would be to invite greater scrutiny into the role of political parties, journalists, economists and others who had perpetuated the narrative that austerity was inevitable, that resistance was futile, and helped to legitimise the choices made by political actors during that era. Unravelling the dominant narrative around the Euro Crisis would be to expose those who continue to defend their legacy during austerity years as one in which they, too, had no alternative.This article was published Open Access with the support from the EUI Library through the CRUI - CUP Transformative Agreement (2020-2022

Responses to the questionnaire.

<p>Responses to the questionnaire.</p

Ranking different codes by frequency of reporting within each clinical severity group.

<p>Ranking different codes by frequency of reporting within each clinical severity group.</p