The project aims to elaborate an interdepartmental research with a view to monitoring the intergated European judicial system. The research wil analyse the degree of protection of the fundamental rights afforded by the legal rules,by administrative and judicial organs, in the relevant legal systems (national and supranational). Special attention will be devoted to a comparative analysis of the Italian Costitution and of the European Charters (EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, the European Convention on Human Rights), as well as to the interpretation and application of such rights by the national and supranational courts (the European Court of Justice, the European Court of Human Rights).
The European Charter of Fundamental Rights (Charter), as approved by the Heads of State and Government at the Nice conference on 15/16 December 2000, represents an important effort of the European Communities to draft a declaration of human rights. The main function of the Charter should be to protect individuals in the EU against abusive action by EU institutions and bodies. From the point of view of the International and European law, the Charter poses a number of difficult questions. First, considering its legal status, the Charter is a non-binding declaration. So it can serve as an interpretative guideline and orientation for community organs and can have certain influence on the European Court of Justice.
Second, the contents ratione materiae et personae lead to the question of the relation between the Charter and other European declarations of fundamental rights and in particular the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (ECHR). The Charter is designed to complement the ECHR in the fields of economic, social and cultural rights, but it also has an innovative nature, by conferring to the citizens protection as regards new kinds of violations of fundamental rights (information technologies, biotechnologies, etc.).
As regard the potential interpretative conflicts the articles 52 and 53 of the Charter guarantee respectively that “ Insofar as this Charter contains rights which correspond to rights guaranteed by the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, the meaning and the scope of those rights shall be the same as those laid down by the said Convention” and that “Nothing in this Charter shall be interpreted as restricting or adversely affecting human rights and fundamental freedoms as recognised, in their respective fields of application, by Union Law and international law and by international agreements…, including the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms…” (emphasis addend).
The research aims to verify the level of protection of the human rights in the European Legal System and to clarify the nature of the Charter and its contribution to the constitutionalization of the European Union.
