Human Rights in Romanian Courts: A European Perspective?

Abstract

The perception and application of the European Convention on Human Rights by various national jurisdictions depends fundamentally on the way in which the Convention has been introduced into national law, as well as, in some countries, by how constitutional jurisdictions shaped this relationship. The article examines the reception of the Convention by a few European states, with a special regard on the case of Romania. Romanian courts, including the Constitutional Court and the supreme court, had a hesitant approach of the principle established by 1991 Constitution of the priority of international law of human rights over domestic law. In the context of the diversity of sources of the European law of human rights, there is an active effort at the European level to create a more coherent order amongst this plurality of human rights protection instruments, in the context of the imminent adhesion of the European Union to the European Convention and of the high number of states-parties to the Convention. The most recent example is the adoption of Protocol no. 16 to the Convention, on 17 July 2013, which will help domestic jurisdictions in their efforts to incorporate the Convention’s standards into the internal law of the states-parties. With the analysis of all these aspects, the paper is aiming to contribute to the topical debate on the convergence of fundamental rights in Europe.