New emerging judicial dynamics of the relationship between national and the European Courts after the enlargement of Europe

The paper explores the impact of the great enlargement of Europe (European Union and Council of Europe) to the east on the judicial interaction between the EU, the ECHR and the Member States legal orders. In order to appraise the dynamic and prospective nature of the enlargement, in particular, the paper tries to contextually shed light on both the National and European “sides of the coin”. In particular, with regard to the “national side”, the paper investigates how the Central and East European Constitutional Courts have reacted to the enlargement of European Union; and in relation to the “European side”, the paper attempts to identify which changes have occurred due to the enlargement of the European Union, especially in the judicial approach of the European Court of Justice, as compared with the newly emerging approach of the European Court of Human Rights after the eastward enlargement of the Council of Europe.

The concluding remarks have a twofold aim. First of all they focus on the idea of judicial dialogue by underlining which models of conflict settlement between legal systems have emerged from the analysis. Secondly, they address the question of whether the latest enlargement has been able to promote an effective policy of human rights within the EU.