Europe's Common Bill of Rights
| Published date | 01 March 1996 |
| Author | Aalt Willem Heringa |
| DOI | 10.1177/1023263X9600300101 |
| Date | 01 March 1996 |
| Subject Matter | Editorial |
Editorial
Europe's Common Bill of Rights
When discussing the 'common law' of Europe it is necessary to make clear from the
beginning what is meant by 'Europe'. Is it the European Union, consisting
of
15 pri-
marily West European States, or is it the Europe of the Council of Europe? The latter
organization now comprises approximately 40 European States from Western and East-
ern Europe.
The European Union, consisting of a supra-national EC pillar, and of inter-govern-
mental decision-making in the areas of justice and foreign affairs, has been based upon
an economic philosophy. The abolition of internal borders and the creation of
"an
internal free market of goods have been the primary aims. The present state
of
affairs
is one whereby this goal results in other important and necessary side-effects leading
to a wish to strive for monetary union and for common policies in areas such as foreign
affairs, which by the nature of things, have a great impact upon European's initial
primarily economic cooperation. Gradually the envisaged economic cooperation results
in other areas
of
common policy.
The aim of the Council of Europe was not so much to set up a supra national organi-
zation as to ensure, through treaties and cooperation, that the 'rule of law' was firmly
established at the European level. This led among others to treaties like the European
Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and the European Social Charter (ESC).
Court
of
Human Rights has established a great authority for itself; its decisions have
improved immensely the scope of the freedoms and liberties of the citizens of the
Contracting Parties and these have been firmly secured in European constitutional
thinking and practices.
Both organizations have not just existed separately from one another. The Strasbourg
Court has accepted that distinctions made by the Contracting States between citizens of
an EC Member State on the one hand and non-EC Member State citizens on the other
hand do not constitute a prohibited discrimination. EC rules and practices in that respect
do form a reasonable and legitimate justification. In some instances the European Court
MJ 3 (1996) 1
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