European Union system of fundamental rights

• Pages: 15-21

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Part I:

General orientation

 European Union system of fundamental

rights

Two sources of fundamental rights

•There are two main su rces of fundamental r ights in EU law: (i) the (unwritte n)

general princ iples of law; and (ii) the Charter.

2

Both the general p rinciples and the

Charter provision s constitute EU primar y law, and they overlap. Both app ly only

within the scope of EU law a nd thus have the same f‌ield of applicatio n.

3

•EU fundamenta l rights can also be fo und in treaty provisions

4

and EU secondar y

law.

5

This handbook fo cuses only on fund amental right s as general prin ciples of

EU law and under the Ch arter.

2 European Comm unities (2012), Consoli dated version of the Treaty on Eu ropean Union (TEU),

OJC326, 26Octo ber2012, Art.6.

3 The expla nations to Art.51(1) of the Cha rter (‘Field of appli cation’) clarif y that this provision is

a codif‌ication o f the CJEU case law concern ing the scope of applic ation of general prin ciples.

Currently, the CJE U uses Art.51(1) of the Char ter by analogy for gener al principles of law.

See, for exam ple, CJEU, C-406/15, Petya Milkova v. Izpalni telen direktor na Agent siata za

privatizatsia i sledprivatizatsi onen control, 9March2017, paras.50 and 54 .

4 See, for example, Euro pean Communities (20 12), Consolidated versio n of the Treaty on the

Function ing of the European Unio n (TFEU), OJC326, 26Octo ber2012, Art.157.

5 See, for examp le, Council Directive 20 00/78/EC of 27November2000 esta blishing a general

framework for eq ual treatment in employm ent and occupation, OJL303 , 2 December2000,

pp.16–22.