Recent Human Rights Developments in the EU Courts: The Charter of Fundamental Rights, the European Arrest Warrant and Terror Lists

Abstract

This article will analyse some of the most significant developments in the human rights case-law of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) and the Court of First Instance (CFI) in recent years. It will begin with a brief description of how the ECJ has finally started relying on the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union (EU) in its judgments. The second part of this article will deal with the decision of the ECJ that the highly controversial European Arrest Warrant (EAW) does not breach the principles of legality and equality. Finally, the third part will focus on the litigation arising from the adoption of counter-terrorism measures — in particular, economic sanctions against individuals. The specific cases that this article will deal with in Sections 2 and 3 have arisen from the European Union’s measures against crime and terrorism, and have been chosen to be the focus of this article because of the highly sensitive nature and the complex institutional framework of this area of activity of the Union, the most rapidly changing one at present.