General principles of law and fundamental rights

Abstract

Abstract The way in which the Court of Justice exercises its jurisdiction under the Treaties is profoundly influenced by the general principles of Community law, a body of unwritten principles used by the Court to supplement the Treaties and acts of the institutions. The development of general principles as a source of law represents one of the Court’s most remarkable and inspired initiatives, not only filling in the inevitable gaps which emerged in the Treaty framework but also ensuring that Community law reflects and is firmly rooted in the basic legal values of the Member States. The notion of ‘general principles of Community law’ is now mentioned in Article 6(2) TEU, but the textual justification in the EC Treaty for recourse to such principles was originally limited. There is no equivalent in the Conununity legal order of Article 38(1)(c) of the Statute of the International Court of Justice, which requires that court to apply ‘the general principles of law recognised by civilized nations’. None the less, there was some basis for thinking that the authors of the Treaty envisaged that the Court might sometimes look beyond its four corners in resolving disputes with which it was confronted. An express reference to general principles may be found in the second paragraph of Article 288 EC, according to which the non-contractual liability of the Community is to be determined in accordance with ‘the general principles common to the Jaws of the Member States’.