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Human Rights and the External Relations of the European Community: An Analysis of Doctrine and Practice
1 Introduction
There is an abundance of writings on the status and role of human rights in European Community (EC) law and the policies of the European Union (EU).1 Especially the case law of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) since 19692 and the relation between human rights as general principles of Community law and the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), including the possible adherence by the EC to the ECHR,3 have been widely discussed.
Less attention has been paid to the notion of human rights in the external policies of the EC and the EU. What are the sources of law forming the basis of such an external human rights policy, given that the EC is not a contracting party to any human rights convention in the true sense of the word? And how does this external policy relate to the main categories of human rights (civil rights, political rights, social rights, minority rights, and so on) and to their broader conceptual framework, notably democracy and the rule of law?
This paper is an endeavour to elucidate such basic issues. We have deliberately chosen to focus on the external human rights policy of the European Community, as the emphasis is on acts of Community law (notably the Treaties, Community agreements and autonomous regulations) and related pronouncements by the Commission and other Community institutions. It is more difficult to articulate and analyse the basic concepts of a human rights policy of the European Union to the extent that this falls outside the Community framework. This would lead us to the legal marshland of Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP, or the `Second Pillar'), with its complex mix of common and national policies.4
1 Suffice
it to mention here A. Cassese, A. Clapham and J. Weiler (eds), European
Union: The Human Rights Challenge, vols I-III (1991); N. Neuwahl and
A. Rosas (eds), The European Union and Human Rights (1995); Woods,
`The European Union and Human Rights', in R. Hanski and M. Suksi (eds),
An Introduction to the International Protection of Human Rights: A
Textbook (1997) 283-300, with references.
2 Case
29/69 Stauder v. City of Ulm [1969] ECR 419.
3 In
Opinion 2/94 [1996] ECR I-1759 (para. 36), the ECJ concluded that
`as Community law now stands, the Community has no competence to accede'
to the ECHR.
4 For an
analysis of this aspect of the question, see M. Fouwels, `The European
Union's Common Foreign and Security Policy and Human Rights', 15
Netherlands Quarterly of Human Rights (1997) 291.
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