Borowski, Martin --- "The Charter of Fundamental Rights in the Treaty on European Union" [2012] ELECD 521; in Trybus, Martin; Rubini, Luca (eds), "The Treaty of Lisbon and the Future of European Law and Policy" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2012)

Book Title: The Treaty of Lisbon and the Future of European Law and Policy

Editor(s): Trybus, Martin; Rubini, Luca

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9780857932556

Section: Chapter 11

Section Title: The Charter of Fundamental Rights in the Treaty on European Union

Author(s): Borowski, Martin

Number of pages: 20

Extract:

11. The Charter of Fundamental Rights
in the Treaty on European Union
Martin Borowski

1. INTRODUCTION
In an ideal world, one would be able to determine, in an ideal discourse,
which interests of the individual ought to prevail over competing interests
and goods. As Jürgen Habermas puts it, each of us would be as much
author as addressee of the law.1 We do not, however, live in an ideal world.
That the democratic process in the real world does not effectively protect
the interests of the individual under all circumstances is an undeniable fact
of modern history. As a reaction to this unfortunate state of affairs, most
European states have recorded fundamental rights in their constitutions.
Against this backdrop, the fact that the initial versions of the European
treaties did not record fundamental rights, let alone include a `bill of
rights', appears to be a grave error. This error has now, at last, been
corrected by the incorporation of the `Charter of Fundamental Rights of
the European Union' (CFR or Charter in what follows)2 into the Treaty on
European Union (TEU),3 thereby rendering the Charter an integral part of
the written primary law of the Union.4 This chapter is devoted to an outline

1
According to Jürgen Habermas the `idea of self-legislation by citizens ...
requires that those subject to law as its addressees can at the same time understand
themselves as authors of law', Habermas, Jürgen (1996), Between Facts and Norms,
William ...