Edinburgh Napier University

  “…as from the date of entry into force of the Treaty of Lisbon, 1 December 2009, the fundamental principles of EU law and the EU system of judicial protection such as primacy, direct application, direct effect and interpretation in conformity, have become of full application in the whole domain of the AFSJ." Ever since the enactment of the European Convention on Human Rights, fundamental rights have operated at and between national and EU law. With the enactment of the Charter of Fundamental Rights via (inter alia) Article 67, Title V of the TFEU, a further layer of fundamental rights has emerged. The Charter addresses the protection of six key rights, one of which is justice. As justice is a broad concept, for present purposes it is useful to identify those particular aspects of the Charter aligned with justice in a specific context. The relevant aspects of the Charter are Articles 6, on the preservation of individual liberty and security of person and Article 47 on the right to an effective remedy and a fair trial. The emergence of the Charter as a source of fundamental rights law provides an opportunity to consider and determine the tripartite 4 relationship between national human rights law, EU law (including human rights law) and the Charter. This paper is focussed on the extent to which the Court of Justice is increasingly having regard to the Charter when interpreting secondary EU laws in the field of judicial cooperation in civil matters. The extent to which such EU laws are interpreted in accordance with the Charter demonstrates a particular aspect of the EU’s “role […] in setting fundamental right policies.” In essence, the introduction of the Treaty of Lisbon and the policy objectives it seeks to achieve necessitate a coherent approach to embedding the Charter across the “EU constitutional legal order.” Raulus recently concluded that due regard to the Charter required to be demonstrated through a combination of “the legislative process […] judicial review of EU law [and] the accession of the EU to the ECHR.” In response to the second point – namely judicial review of EU law- it is necessary to consider how the Court of Justice’s jurisprudence on the interpretation of secondary EU laws is increasingly taking account of fundamental rights in the Charter