Details
Provides an original contribution to the growing literature on transnational judicial authority
Offers a potential solution to emerging conflicts in human rights interpretation in the EU
Presents the fullest exploration available of the role and value of judicial dialogue
Includes comparative analysis with the American debate on federalism and rights
Underlying the protection of human rights in Europe is a complex network of overlapping legal systems - domestic, EU, and ECHR. This book focuses on the potential for conflict to emerge between the systems where rights overlap and interpretations in different courts begin to diverge.
From the perspective of EU law, where the interpretation of rights differs national courts are asked to renounce the constitutional scope of protection in favour of the scope defined by the European Court of Justice. This work presents a theory of supranational judicial authority to confront this problem, grounded in an ideal of judicial dialogue. It represents the first attempt to provide a thorough theoretical account of the value of judicial dialogue, and its potential for legitimating judicial decision-making at a supranational level.
Combining theoretical rigour with attention to the practicalities of European human rights law, the book will be accessible to a broad readership of legal theorists, EU lawyers and judges involved in building inter-judicial dialogue.
Readership: Academics working on EU law, constitutional law, international human rights law, or philosophy of law. Judges involved in dialogue between national and supranational courts.
Part I. Rights in Europe
1: Fundamental Rights Conflicts in the European Union
2: Multilevel Protection of Rights in Europe
Part II. EU Rights within a Pluralist Framework
3: From Hierarchy to Pluralism
4: The Tension between Uniformity and Diversity
Part III. Judicial Dialogue
5: Judicial Dialogue as the Source of Legitimacy of Supranational Adjudication
6: Comparative Constitutional Reasoning: Recasting its Justification and Operation
Concluding Remarks
Aida Torres Pérez, Professor of Constitutional Law at Pompeu Fabra University, Barcelona
Aida Torres Pérez is Professor of Constitutional Law at Pompeu Fabra University (Barcelona) since 2005. She graduated in Law at Pompeu Fabra (1999), where she pursued doctoral studies (DEA 2003). She studied a Master of Laws at the Yale Law School (LL.M. 2002), where she also wrote her thesis and obtained her doctoral degree (JSD 2006). She has been awarded numerous fellowships (La Caixa 2001-2003, Yale Center for International and Area Studies Summer 2003, AGAUR 2003-2004, Caja Madrid 2004-2005, Lillian Goldman 2005-2006, IEA 2007-2008). Her main fields of research are European constitutionalism, multilevel protection of rights in Europe, fundamental rights, constitutional theory, and the impact of globalization upon the separation of powers. She has taught courses, given presentations, and published several articles regarding these issues.
"This is an impressive book and it uses valuable insights from legal theory and US constitutional law to answer an important question of EU law. Torres Perez develops her ideas with great clarity and the solutions she brings forward are highly interesting." - Common Market Law Review
"...the book provides a stimulating contribution to the debate." - Nik de Boer, Common Market Law Review
