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Divisible, Contingent and Parochial? : The instrumentality of EU fundamental rights

Gill-Pedro, Eduardo LU (2019)
Abstract
Human rights are meant to be universal, indivisible, and inalienable. They are legal norms that claim to reflect urgent moral concerns, and to protect human beings by mere virtue of their humanity. As such they are held to be universal, in that they apply to all human beings regardless of their background and nationality; they are inalienable, in that all human beings are born with them and they cannot be taken away from them; and they are indivisible, in that they cannot be considered in isolation, but must be understood to be the sum of entitlements which human beings require in order that their humanity be respected.
This chapter argues that EU fundamental rights meet none of these criteria. They are not universal, in that they... (More)
Human rights are meant to be universal, indivisible, and inalienable. They are legal norms that claim to reflect urgent moral concerns, and to protect human beings by mere virtue of their humanity. As such they are held to be universal, in that they apply to all human beings regardless of their background and nationality; they are inalienable, in that all human beings are born with them and they cannot be taken away from them; and they are indivisible, in that they cannot be considered in isolation, but must be understood to be the sum of entitlements which human beings require in order that their humanity be respected.
This chapter argues that EU fundamental rights meet none of these criteria. They are not universal, in that they may reserved only to certain classes of persons, they are not indivisible, in that particular individuals may be entitled to protection of some EU fundamental rights, but not others, and they are not inalienable, in that the extent of their protection may be contingent on whether such protection furthers the achievement of EU objectives. EU fundamental rights, it is argued in this chapter, are instrumental – they are means by which the unity, primacy and efficacy of EU law is secured.
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Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
organization
publishing date
type
Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding
publication status
published
subject
keywords
EU law, Fundamental Rights, Legal Theory, Human Rights, Instrumentality, EU-rött, Mänskliga rättigheter
host publication
Os Direitos Humanos por um fio? : Perspetivas transdisciplinares em torno dos direitos humanos em tempos difíceis - Perspetivas transdisciplinares em torno dos direitos humanos em tempos difíceis
editor
Rocha-Cunha, Silvério ; Baptista Martins, Marco and Vasques, Rafael
publisher
Edições Humus
ISBN
9789897554186
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
0adfacb8-212b-4f70-9954-aeb96a6d522e
date added to LUP
2019-06-14 12:29:08
date last changed
2020-01-23 12:00:31
@inbook{0adfacb8-212b-4f70-9954-aeb96a6d522e,
  abstract     = {{Human rights are meant to be universal, indivisible, and inalienable.  They are legal norms that claim to reflect urgent moral concerns, and to protect human beings by mere virtue of their humanity.  As such they are held to be universal, in that they apply to all human beings regardless of their background and nationality; they are inalienable, in that all human beings are born with them and they cannot be taken away from them; and they are indivisible, in that they cannot be considered in isolation, but must be understood to be the sum of entitlements which human beings require in order that their humanity be respected.<br/>This chapter argues that EU fundamental rights meet none of these criteria. They are not universal, in that they may reserved only to certain classes of persons, they are not indivisible, in that particular individuals may be entitled to protection of some EU fundamental rights, but not others, and they are not inalienable, in that the extent of their protection may be contingent on whether such protection furthers the achievement of EU objectives. EU fundamental rights, it is argued in this chapter, are instrumental – they are means by which the unity, primacy and efficacy of EU law is secured.<br/>}},
  author       = {{Gill-Pedro, Eduardo}},
  booktitle    = {{Os Direitos Humanos por um fio? : Perspetivas transdisciplinares em torno dos direitos humanos em tempos difíceis}},
  editor       = {{Rocha-Cunha, Silvério and Baptista Martins, Marco and Vasques, Rafael}},
  isbn         = {{9789897554186}},
  keywords     = {{EU law; Fundamental Rights; Legal Theory; Human Rights; Instrumentality; EU-rött; Mänskliga rättigheter}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  publisher    = {{Edições Humus}},
  title        = {{Divisible, Contingent and Parochial? : The instrumentality of EU fundamental rights}},
  year         = {{2019}},
}