Fundamental community rights the European community court of justice, treaties and Bill of Rights

Abstract

This paper aims at exploring the origins and major features of the European Union's fundamental rights. These rights initially underwent a jurisprudential phase and later a statutory phase when they were introduced in the EU Treaties, especially since the Amsterdam Treaty. This study occurs in a period when political and institutional initiatives have been developed in order to complete the European 'constitutionalization process' concerning organisational principles and fundamental rights. The paper mainly focuses on two aspects. The first aspect is the Kreil case analysis, which highlights the overcoming of a traditional resistance by a national constitutional Court (the German one) towards the principle of superiority of European Union law over a national constitutional law concerning fundamental rights. The second aspect analyses the protection of fundamental rights and social rights in particular, according to the Charter of Nice, which are still considered as 'goal rights', as opposed to 'claim rights'.