2020/21
807 - Masters Centre of the Department of Law
8075 - Master in European and Global Law
32147 - European Constitutionalism and Fundamental Rights
Joan Solanes Mullor, Aida Torres Pérez
Contents
PART 1. INTRODUCTION: THE CONTEXT
SESSION 1. Reconstructing Europe after the II World War: a Europe of rights. The three levels of protection: post-second world war European constitutionalism, the Council of Europe and the European Union.
Readings:
European Convention on Human Rights
Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union
Council of Europe, Do not get confused, 2019
R. Schütze, “Three ‘Bills of rights’ for the European Union, Yearbook of European Law, Vol. 30, No. 1, 2011.
PART 2. THE EUROPEAN CONVENTION ON HUMAN RIGHTS
SESSION 2. The institutional structure: the Council of Europe, the Convention and the European Court of Human Rights
Readings:
Council of Europe, The Council of Europe. An overview
Council of Europe, The European Court of Human Rights in 50 questions
Council of Europe, The ECHR in facts & figures 2019
SESSION 3. How to read the Convention? (I) The role of the ECtHR. Applying the Strasbourg’s test
Readings:
Case of Hatton and Others v. The United Kingdom, GC, 8 July 2003
Case of Leyla Sahin v. Turkey, 10 November 2005
Case of Salduz v. Turkey, GC, 27 November 2008
SESSION 4. How to read the Convention? (II) Autonomous concepts, margin of appreciation, evolutive interpretation, comparative reasoning and other international instruments
Readings:
Case of Demir and Baykara v. Turkey, GC, 12 November 2008
Case of Vinter and Others v. The United Kingdom, GC, 9 July 2013
D. Spielmann, “Allowing the Right Margin: The European Court of Human rights and The National Margin of Apreciation Doctrine: Waiver of Subsidiarity of European Review? CELS Working Paper Series, February 2012, 30.
SESSION 5.The European Convention, the Judgments of the Court and the National Legal Systems. Which is the impact of the ECtHR interpretation of fundamental rights on other European Courts?
Readings:
Case of Yuriy Nikolayevich Ivanov v. Ukraine, 15 October 2009
Case of Sejdovic v. Italy, GC,1 March 2006
D. Spielmann, "Jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights and the Constitutional Systems of Europe", in The Oxford Handbook of Comparative Constitutional Law, May 2012, pp. 1231-1252
SESSION 6. Sovereignty and Authority. Criticism and the future of the Convention.
Readings:
Committee of Ministers, 13th Annual Report of the Committee of Ministers. Supervision of the execution of judgments and decisions of the European Court of Human Rights 2019.
H. Keller and A. Stone Sweet, “Assessing the Impact of the ECHR on National Legal Systems”, in H. Keller and A. Stone Sweet, A Europe of Rights, pp. 677-710.
PART 3. THE EU CHARTER OF FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS
SESSION 7. The EU Charter of Fundamental Rights: drafting, content and structure. The evolution of fundamental rights protection in the EU and the role of the Court of Justice as a human rights court.
Readings:
G. de Búrca, "After the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights: The Court of Justice as a Human Rights Adjudicator?", 20 Maastricht Journal of European and Comparative Law 2013
SESSION 8. The limited scope of application of the Charter to the Member States. When does the Charter apply to state action?
Readings:
K. Lenaerts and J.A. Gutiérrez-Fons, “The Place of the Charter in the EU
Constitutional Edifice”, in S. Peers, T. Hervey, J. Kenner, A. Ward (eds.), The EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, Hart Publishing, 2014, pp. 1559-1571
Case C-617/10, Äkerberg Fransson, 26 February 2013
Case C-165/14, Rendón Marín, 13 September 2016
SESSION 9. Potential conflicts between levels of protection: the Charter as a minimum or maximum standard of protection?
Readings:
B. de Witte, “Level of Protection”, in S. Peers, T. Hervey, J. Kenner, A. Ward (eds.), The EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, Hart Publishing, 2014
Case C-399/11, Melloni, 26 February 2013
Case C-168/13, Jeremy F, 30 May 2013
SESSION 10. From workers to citizens: the evolution of the concept of "persons" within the EU and the progressive recognition of (non-economic) rights.
Guest Professor: Diane Fromage, Marie Sklodowska-Curie Fellow, Sciences Po
SESSION 11. The (failed) accession of the EU to the European Convention on Human Rights.
Readings:
B. de Witte and Šejla Imamović, "Opinion 2/13 on Accession to the ECHR: Defending the EU Legal Order against a Foreign Human Rights Court", 40 E.L. Rev. 2015
CJEU Opinion 2/13, 18 December 2014
PART 4.CONCLUSION
SESSION 12. Constitutional pluralism: the multilevel protection of rights in Europe. Judicial dialogue: the interaction between Strasbourg, Luxembourg and constitutional courts
Readings:
A. Rosas, “The European Court of Justice in Context: Forms and Patterns of Judicial Dialogue”, European Journal of Legal Studies, 1, 2007
A. Torres Pérez, "Judicial dialogue and fundamental rights in the European Union: a quest for legitimacy", in Jacobsohn and Schor (eds.), Comparative Constitutional Theory, Edward Elgar 2018