Fundamental rights in internal market legislation

Defence date: 17 June 2013Examining Board: Professor Bruno de Witte (EUI Supervisor) ; Professor Hans-Wolfgang Micklitz, European University Institute ; Professor Niamh Nic Shuibne, University of Edinburgh ; Dr. Clemens Ladenburger, European Commission.This thesis places the debate on the relationship between fundamental rights and the internal market outside the field of negative integration (where it is usually takes place) into the field of positive integration. It examines the extent to which there is an internal market competence to deal with fundamental rights and analyses new mechanisms for fundamental rights protection outside the Courts. Against this backdrop, this thesis analyses the existing harmonisation practice in the EU through the lens of four fundamental rights: (i) data protection, (ii) freedom of expression, (iii) fundamental labour rights [the right to collective bargaining and the right to fair and just working conditions] and (iv) the right to health. The research reveals that there is a considerable amount of internal market legislation dealing with fundamental rights (even pre-existing the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights) but that most of it is not couched in fundamental rights terms. This thesis identifies the determinants, which account for the current prevalent conceptualisation and assesses the consequences of such approaches both for the substantive content of legislation and for its judicial review. The thesis provides a much more differentiated account of the EU's fundamental rights policy in and through the internal market than perhaps initially expected. It builds the case for a conscious approach to dealing with and enhancing fundamental rights protection in and through internal market legislation, and advocates a leading role for the legislator in the establishment of an internal market that is firmly based on respect for fundamental rights

The EU Accession to the ECHR

Article 6 of the Treaty on European Union (TEU) provides that the EU will accede to the system of human rights protection of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). Protocol No 9 in the Treaty of Lisbon opens the way for accession. This represents a major change in the relationship between two organisations that have co-operated closely in the past, though the ECHR has hitherto exercised only an indirect constitutional control over the EU legal order through scrutiny of EU Member States. The accession of the EU to the ECHR is expected to put an end to the informal dialogue, and allegedly also competition between the two regimes in Europe and to establish formal (both normative and institutional) hierarchies. In this new era, some old problems will be solved and new ones will appear. Questions of autonomy and independence, of attribution and allocation of responsibility, of co-operation, and legal pluralism will all arise, with consequences for the protection of human rights in Europe. This book seeks to understand how relations between the two organisations are likely to evolve after accession, and whether this new model will bring more coherence in European human rights protection. The book analyses from several different, yet interconnected, points of view and relevant practice the draft Accession Agreement, shedding light on future developments in the ECHR and beyond. Contributions in the book span classic public international law, EU law and the law of the ECHR, and are written by a mix of legal and non-legal experts from academia and practice

The Impact of the Internal Market on Private Law of Member Countries

The papers collected in this Working Paper are the fruit of the Seminar ‘The Impact of the Internal Market on Private Law of the Member States’, which was organized by Profs. Fabrizio Cafaggi, Hans- Wolfgang Micklitz, and Norbert Reich at the European University Institute in the spring semester of 2009. The papers collectively aim to improve the understanding of the multi-level interplay between primary EC law and national private law. As such, the authors address the pressing topics of the shifting public – private divide in Community law, the impact of fundamental rights on Internal Market and national private law, the restrictive effect of national private law on the market freedoms, and the duty of national courts to ex-officio raise Community law in domestic legal dispute