| Abstract [eng] |
This work analyses the impact of the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) on the case law of the Court of Justice of the European Union (the CJEU), examining the origins of this phenomenon, its theoretical foundations, and its manifestation in different fields of fundamental rights. The study focuses on the CJEU case law that developed after the entry into force of the Treaty of Lisbon, since it was at that point that the primary law of the European Union, most notably through Article 52(3) of the Charter, more clearly established the legal tools ensuring the consistency of Charter rights with Convention rights. ECtHR case law operates in the jurisprudence of the CJEU in a dual manner: as a minimum binding standard of fundamental rights protection and as an authoritative interpretative tool. In the fields of the prohibition of torture, the right to a fair trial, and the right to private and family life, the CJEU essentially interprets the substance and scope of the corresponding Charter rights on the basis of standards developed by the ECtHR. Nevertheless, a uniform approach is not absolute. In the areas of the prohibition of torture and the right to a fair trial, the CJEU adapts the minimum standards to the specific logic of EU law, especially in cases involving instruments of secondary EU law based on the principles of mutual trust and mutual recognition. As a result, a certain tension may be observed in these fields between the ECtHR’s emphasis on individualised assessment and the CJEU’s aim of preserving the effectiveness of EU law. By contrast, in the field of the right to private and family life, particularly in cases concerning gender identity and the protection of same-sex couples, the CJEU likewise relies on ECtHR jurisprudence when interpreting Article 7 of the Charter. However, here the logic of EU-law effectiveness reinforces rather than limits the implementation of ECtHR standards through free movement guarantees and the interpretation of EU secondary law. The thesis therefore concludes that the influence of ECtHR jurisprudence on the case law of the CJEU is significant, yet Europe is developing a more uniform, rather than fully identical, approach to the protection of fundamental rights. |
