Integration Through EU Fundamental Rights

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Integration through EU Fundamental Rights The importance of law and the role of the European Court of Justice and its case-law in the overall process of European integration have been correctly emphasized in European legal and political science scholarship. What can the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights add to that process? The experience of federal states demonstrates that human rights can have a crucial impact on the vertical balance of power, since both legislators and courts may activate human rights with centripetal effects. The U.S. and German cases provide ample evidence. The EU Charter, in force since December 2009, has begun to perform some federalising effects. However, relevant differences remain. The application of EU fundamental rights to member states’ action is more complex and controverted than in federal jurisdictions. First, it is not automatic nor dependent solely on the existence of exclusive or shared EU competence. The requirement of a link between the case and the substantive scope of EU law seems to limit, or hide, the federal element and its dynamics, but often it is a matter of perception. Second, the EU Charter must coexist with well-established constitutional jurisdictions in the member states, which want to preserve the proper functioning of the received constitutional space as well as their prominent role as integral protectors of (national) fundamental rights. How can a balance between unity and diversity be achieved here? The German Federal Constitutional Court’s two judgments on the Right to be forgotten (2019) show how a constitutional court can accommodate itself with the federalising effects of the EU Charter while attempting to preserve a relevant role in a functioning constitutional order. The requested Jean Monnet Chair aims at assessing the integrative effects of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights and the correlative impact on, and acceptance by, member states’ constitutional courts.