Full Description
The accession by the European Union to the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) has opened up new possibilities in terms of the constitutional recognition of fundamental rights in the EU. In the field of employment law it heralds a new procedure for workers and trade unions to challenge EU law against the background of the ECHR. In theoretical terms this means that EU law now goes beyond recognition of fundamental rights as mere general principles of EU law, making the ECHR the 'gold standard' for fundamental (social) rights.
This publication of the Transnational Trade Union Rights Working Group focuses on the EU and the interplay between the Strasbourg case law and the case law of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), analysing the relevance of the ECHR for the protection of workers' rights and for the effective enjoyment of civil and political rights in the employment relation. Each chapter is written by a prominent European human rights expert and analyses the case law of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), and also looks at the equivalent international labour standards within the Council of Europe (in particular the (Revised) European Social Charter), the International Labour Organization (ILO) (in particular the fundamental rights conventions) and the UN Covenants (in particular the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights) and the interpretation of these instruments by competent organs.
The authors also analyse the ways in which the CJEU has acknowledged the respective ECHR articles as 'general principles' of EU law and asks whether the Lisbon Treaty will also warrant a reassessment of the way it has treated conflicts between these 'general principles' and the so-called 'fundamental freedoms'.
Contents
General Part
1. The New Social Dimension in the Jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR): The Demir
and Baykara Judgment, its Methodology and Follow-up
Klaus Lörcher
2. A Twenty-First-Century Procession of Echternach: The Accession of the EU to the European Convention on Human Rights
Rick Lawson
3. Procedure in the European Court of Human Rights (with a Particular Focus on Cases Concerning Trade
Union Rights)
John Hendy KC
4. The Future of the European Court of Human Rights in the Light of the Brighton Declaration
Klaus Lörcher
5. Human Rights in Employment Relationships: Contracts as Power
Olivier De Schutter
Analysis of the ECHR
6. The Prohibition of Slavery, Servitude and Forced and Compulsory Labour under Article 4 ECHR
Virginia Mantouvalou
7. Labour Law Litigation and Fair Trial under Article 6 ECHR
Sébastien Van Drooghenbroek
8. Article 8 ECHR: Judicial Patterns of Employment Privacy Protection
Frank Hendrickx and Aline Van Bever
9. Freedom of Religion and Belief, Article 9 ECHR and the EU Equality Directive
Lucy Vickers
10. The Right to Freedom of Expression in the Workplace under Article 10 ECHR
Dirk Voorhoof and Patrick Humblet
11. The Right to Form and Join Trade Unions Protected by Article 11 ECHR
Isabelle Van Hiel
12. Article 11 ECHR: The Right to Bargain Collectively under Article 11 ECHR
Antoine Jacobs
13. The Right to Take Collective Action under Article 11 ECHR
Filip Dorssemont
14. Prohibition of Discrimination under Article 14 European Convention on Human Rights
Niklas Bruun
15. Every Natural or Legal Person is Entitled to the Peaceful Enjoyment of His or Her Possessions: Article 1, Protocol 1 to the European Convention on Human Rights
Petra Herzfeld Olsson
Conclusions
16. The European Convention on Human Rights and the Employment Relation
Filip Dorssemont and Klaus Lörcher
