Source: https://www.oksunglassesus.us/2019/10/plot-twist-case-c-12818-dorobantu.html
Timestamp: 2020-07-14 00:36:15
Document Index: 42811046

Matched Legal Cases: ['CJEU ', 'sui generis', 'CJEU ', 'CJEU ', 'CJEU ', 'CJEU ', 'CJEU ', 'CJEU ', 'CJEU ', 'CJEU ']

Plot twist? Case C-128/18 Dorobantu: detention conditions and the applicability of the ECHR in the EU legal order - Oksunglassesus.us
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The EU legal order is generally seen as a sui generis supranational legal order, separate from both international law and national law. Within this legal order, the protection of fundamental rights takes a prominent place: based on Article 6 TEU, the EU’s fundamental rights architecture rests on three pillars: 1) the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, 2) the EU’s accession to the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), and 3) the general principles of EU law based on the ECHR and the common constitutional traditions of the Member States. As is known, Opinion 2/13 of the Court of Justice of the European Union (discussed here) deemed the first version of the ECHR accession agreement incompatible with EU primary law. (A second attempt will soon get underway) This does not affect of course the role of the ECHR and the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) as “sources of inspiration” of the general principles of EU law. In Case C-128/18 Dorobantuhowever, the CJEU seems to introduce a new way of application for ECHR law, one which arguably goes beyond the Court’s hitherto applied method.
The German court was of the opinion (based inter aliaon relevant judgments of the ECtHR) that systemic and generalised deficiencies in detention conditions were indeed discernible in Romania, however, the German court also took into account the information communicated by the issuing Romanian court and the Romanian justice ministry and finally concluded that the surrender of Mr Dorobantu was legal, since detention conditions had been improving in the issuing state, and since some measures had been implemented in order to compensate detainees for the lack of personal space. The court also took into account that should the execution of the EAW be refused, the offences committed by Mr Dorobantu would remain unpunished, which would run counter to the efficacy of judicial cooperation in criminal matters.
In its preliminary ruling request, the German court was enquiring about the minimum standards for custodial conditions required under the EU Charter, and about the interpretation of the concept of “real risk” of inhuman or degrading treatment as used by the CJEU in Aranyosi and Căldăraru. The Court began by a usual overview and reaffirmation of the EU’s fundamental rights system. It underlined further the significance of mutual trust and mutual recognitions in EU justice and home affairs law, and added that exceptional circumstances may require limitations to be placed on these principles, especially in light of its judgments in Aranyosi and Căldăraru, Minister for Justice and Equality (Deficiencies in the system of justice) (discussed here), and Generalstaatsanwaltschaft (Conditions of detention in Hungary),but only based on precise information. At this point, however, the CJEU encountered a difficulty. The Hamburg court was looking for guidance on how to assess conditions of detention as regards the personal space available to each detainee – but EU law contains no rules on this issue.
The ECHR – to which all EU Member States are parties – has long played an important role in the fundamental rights architecture of the EU: since the 1970s, it has been referencedby the CJEU as an important source of inspiration for the general principles of EU law, and given the fact that the EU Charter only received legal binding force in 2009 via the Treaty of Lisbon, its significance cannot be overestimated: the CJEU has been relying on the ECHR and the case law of the ECtHR (alongside the common constitutional traditions of the Member States) for decades as guidelines for developing its own jurisprudence on fundamental rights as unwritten principles of EU law, a concept which was recognized and supported by a joint declaration of the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission already in 1977. Thus reliance on the ECHR, the “benchmark” in European human rights protection is of course nothing new, and even though the Lisbon Treaty endowed the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU with legal binding force, the continuing parallel existence of the general principles in the post-Lisbon era is expressly recognized by Article 6(3) TEU. Moreover, Article 52(3) of the Charter refers back to the ECHR.
Furthermore, since Kamberajit is known that the ECHR does not “enjoy the benefits” of direct effect and primacy of application over national law by virtue of Article 6 (3) TEU, as the TEU does not govern the relationship between the ECHR and the Member States’ legal systems, and thus it cannot have the effect of transforming the ECHR into a directly applicable quasi-EU law norm with primacy over national law. Based on Kamberaj it can thus be ruled out that the ECHR was applied in Dorobantuvia the principles of direct effect and primacy.
Even though the method utilised by the Court of Justice in Dorobantuis new in the context of the ECHR, it does bring to mind a similar method the Court applied in Poulsen and Diva Navigation. In the fisheries-related dispute, a national court was asking the CJEU (among other things) whether EU law (Community law at the time) contained any provisions on the situation of distress. Apparently it did not, and the Court pointed the national court towards international law, by proclaiming that “[i]n those circumstances, it is for the national court to determine, in accordance with international law, the legal consequences which flow (…) from a situation of distress involving a vessel from a non-member country.”
As researchhas shown, the CJEU tends to cite the ECHR and the case law of the ECtHR less frequently since the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty. Since the CJEU’s – heavily autonomy-centric and much discussed– Opinion 2/13, the EU’s accession to the ECHR stalled, at least until recently. Time will tell if this novel method of reference used in Dorobantu (by the Grand Chamber no less) catches on and whether the Court will tend to rely on it as a temporary stand-in until formal ECHR accession eventually happens. In any case the Dorobantu judgment also underlines the relevance and significance of judicial dialogue between European courts.
Dorobantu is also important more generally as regards the relationship between international law and EU law and the applicability of international law norms within the EU legal order. This recent judgment seems to fall into the line of cases (such as Haegeman, Racke, ATAAor Front Polisario, discussed here) that demonstrate a strong Völkerrechtsfreundlichkeit (or a monist approach, if you will) on behalf of the CJEU and seem at odds with judgments based on an more autonomy-centric (or dualist) approach (such as Kadi, Achmeaor indeed Opinion 2/13).