¶ … 1950s, attempts to integrate fundamental human rights into EU treaties met with little success. Many commentators observe that the reason for the failure of these attempts is the fact that the EU was viewed primarily as an economic union, and as a result, the ECJ's role would be primarily in adjudicating economic and related trade disputes. Also, the ECJ would be charged with making determinations of EU/MS sovereignty where questions regarding the Eurozone's fundamental law and subsequent treaties are concerned. It follows then, that the development of a body of law for the securing and protection of fundamental rights across the EU's member states would have to wait until there was a deeper political and "psychological" union among Europe's citizens; and until this type of "union" took place among the EU's various polities, the ECJ was unable to legitimately and properly address questions of fundamental rights protections. Over time, the ECJ took the lead from adjudicating controversies surrounding the EU's "four freedoms" (the free movement of persons, goods, services and capital) to interpreting the EU's various treaties and their provisions in such a manner as to "carve out" so to speak, a judicial domain for fundamental human rights. The treatment of economic law, regulation and policy as a matter of human rights, and the development of 'general principles' of EU law begins in earnest in the 1960s, and subsequently until the Lisbon Treaty made the Charter of Fundamental Rights legally binding, the ECJ had established itself as the arbiter of European fundamental rights through its judicial decision making.
The first case of note in regard to laying the foundation for a European body of fundamental rights was the ECJ's 1969 decision in Stauder v. City of Ulm. Prior to this decision, no judicial, legislative or executive institution in the EU had explicitly addressed the theory that there may be fundamental human and political rights which cut across member states.
Our semester plans gives you unlimited, unrestricted access to our entire library of resources —writing tools, guides, example essays, tutorials, class notes, and more.
Get Started Now