Conflicts of Rights in the European Union

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, and the interpretations of the European Court of Human Rights, in favor of the scope defined by the European Court of Justice. From the perspective of the ECHR, the European Court of Human Rights is the ultimate authority on rights protection in Europe. 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 an international level.

Combining theoretical rigor 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.

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. She is a member of the Interdisciplinary Research Group on Immigration (Pompeu Fabra University).