Like any other legal system Community Law attempts to articulate in a peaceable manner various aspects of social life. Achieving this objective involves two essential requirements. a group of regulations devised to create an idea of justice which engages with society, and the effective application of those norms.
The idea of justice of a specific community is basically governed by a catalogue of fundamental rights and public freedoms, with it being reasonable to assume that in 2010, with the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty, the European Union Charter of Fundamental Rights will be incorporated in the Community system as an authentic regulation with the rank of legal instrument, rather than simply an item on the programme. This will require a rereading of Community law.
It is therefore necessary for the administrators of that extended system to be prepared to address the inevitable challenges inherent in the entry into force of the aforementioned Charter, which is set to generate a specific litigiousness. A pertinent example of this is the particularly current nature of the problems relating to the singular treatment claimed by minorities, which affects all fields of law and the judicial response to which must not be made in an uncoordinated manner by national judges of the member states, nor can the problem be resolved by said judges by requesting preliminary rulings en masse from the High Court of Justice of the European Communities, as this would overwhelm the court’s normal operations.
Therefore, the course attempts to take an in-depth look at the values on which Community Law bases the idea of justice, reflected in a catalogue of fundamental rights, in order to obtain the effective and homogenous application of said rights.
Furthermore, that reflection cannot be restricted to the scope of the technical content of the community rules. Art.47 of the aforementioned Charter establishes as a fundamental right of European citizens, not only that of effective judicial protection but also the right to an impartial judge, so that it is essential to consider various aspects which could affect that impartiality, which includes pressure on the Community courts by other institutional community powers.
This course aims to provide the opportunity for the judges affected to jointly undertake such reflections, irrespective of the jurisdictional sphere to which they belong, given that the problems we are talking about affect all sectors of the judicial world.