Fundamental Rights in Europe: “Constitutional” Dialogue between the Court of Justice of the EU and European Court of Human Rights

Abstract

This paper is based on a socio-legal research  which evaluates the impact of the Treaty of Lisbon on the area of fundamental rights within the EU. The project’s central core is on the relationship between the Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU, as it might be termed the Luxembourg Court) and the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR, as it might be termed the Strasbourg Court) in the pre and post EU’s accession to the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR). The work, as informed by empirical findings, questions whether the two Courts’ dialogue in the fundamental rights sphere could be analysed using the language of constitutional pluralism, doctrine elaborated by scholars to describe the multiple claims of authority between the CJEU and the national courts. The after accession era offers interesting features to revisit the constitutional pluralism doctrine, challenging its appropriateness when granting final authority to the Strasbourg Court in the European human rights field.