Efficiency of protection of human rights in non unitary entities by means of uniformly applied sets of norms

This thesis attempts to deal with the question of whether the protection of the fundamental rights of the citizens of the Member States of the European Community should be entrusted to a uniformly applied set of norms. In other words, it discusses whether the legal area of human rights should be subjected to the process of integration that has been characteristic of the development of the European Community in the last fifty years. In doing so, the thesis initially introduces the principles of efficiency and uniformity and presumes that efficiency of protection of human rights exists when protection is afforded by means of uniformly applied sets of norms, whereas inefficiency exists when protection is fragmented. The validity of these presumptions is then tested on two non unitary entities, the European Community and the United States of America. This is done by means of an analysis of the whole spectrum of the protective measures available in these entities, which includes the uniformly applied sets of norms for each one of them, the European Convention on Human Rights, as regards the European Community, and the Bill of Rights of the American Constitution, as regards the United States of America. As a result of this analysis the thesis questions the validity of the two presumptions initially made. Indeed in Europe, where the protection of the human rights of the individual is significantly fragmented, there are no indications that this protection is inefficient. In the United States of America, on the other hand, where the protection of the rights of individual is overwhelmingly bestowed upon the uniformly applied provisions of the federal Bill of Rights, efficiency problems seem to exist