The European Union Charter of Fundamental Rights

Abstract:

The European Charter of Fundamental Rights represents a quantum leap in the progress and recognition of human rights within the EU. This book explores the impact of the Charter on four fronts. First, it examines the Charter's role in the continuing debate on constitutionalism and the interaction of European Union and Member State power. Second, it examines its effect on a range of substantive areas of EU regulation. Third, it illustrates the Charter's impact on the question of 'access to justice' in the EU and fourth, it looks at the international level and the influence the Charter has had on the process of accession of new Member States to the EU.

The papers are presented in three parts. The first part contains six papers which address the political, legal and constitutional issues. The second part, consisting of eight papers, looks at the Charter's impact on substantive policy areas of EU regulation, including the internal market, labour law, health care law, social security and children's rights. The final part looks at the legal remedies made available through the Charter and closes with a firm endorsement of the Charter as 'a first and positive step insofar as the remedial rights it contains are more expansive than those contained in the European Convention of Human Rights and prior EC law'.

The work will interest scholars and students, practitioners and researchers engaged in the fields of European law, European Union studies and international law.

Steve Peers is a Professor of Law at the University of Essex. Angela Ward is a Reader in Law at the University of Essex, and a Barrister of the Middle Temple.