ebook The Humanitarian Principle of Punishment and the Protection of Prisoners within the European Legal Space Maria Cristina Carta

This publication highlights the importance of the ECtHR acquis to foster
the consolidation of the European Area of Justice, mainly based on judicial
cooperation in criminal matters and it underscores the practical implications
and obligations for EU policy-makers who wish to harmonize measures to
approximate the law of EU Member State and achieve a higher level of mu60
tual trust between national authorities. Failure to comply with such obligations
would result in the measures being declared unlawful. In this regard, the
central role and non-derogation of the rights described in the ECHR, and the
minimum standards of protection established by the Strasbourg Court, have
already been highlighted. Such standards affect the Union through art. 6 § 3
TEU and art. 52 and 53 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights, being parameters
used for the interpretation and application of the Charter. The analysis
of those provisions shows that, although the CFREU plays a major role in the
European system of protection of fundamental rights, the rules of compliance
mentioned above, the rights guaranteed by the ECHR as “general principles of
the EU law”, even after the Treaty of Lisbon, assign to the ECHR (animated
by the Strasbourg jurisprudence) a paramount importance within a system that
is only “partially” integrated by the protection of human rights.(Conclusions)