The EU Accession to the ECHR Ante Portas: Questions Raised by Europe's New Human Rights Architecture

Vasiliki Kosta 

European University Institute - Department of Law (LAW)

Nikos Skoutaris 

University of East Anglia, School of Law

Vassilis P. Tzevelekos 

Independent
July 1, 2014

in The EU Accession to the ECHR, V. Kosta, N. Skoutaris, V. Tzevelekos (eds.), Hart, 2014 
Abstract:      

This is the introductory chapter of an edited volume on the question of the EU Accession to the ECHR. The paper gives an overview of the normative environment surrounding the accession of the EU to the ECHR, and explains the aims, structure and limits of the book. It argues that the accession will represent a major change in the relationship between two organisations that have co-operated closely in the past, though the ECHR has exercised only an indirect constitutional control over the EU legal order through scrutiny of EU Member States. The accession of the EU to the ECHR is expected to put an end to the informal dialogue, and allegedly also competition between the two regimes in Europe and to establish formal (both normative and institutional) hierarchies. In this new era, some old problems will be solved and new ones will appear. Beyond the co-respondent mechanism and CJEU's prior involvement, questions of autonomy and independence, of attribution and allocation of responsibility, of cooperation, and legal pluralism will arise, with consequences for the protection of human rights in Europe.

Number of Pages in PDF File: 14

Keywords: EU Accession to ECHR, ARIO, legal pluralism, judicial dialogue, multi-level protection, co-respondent mechanism, prior involvement, EU's autonomy

Full text available at: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2531930