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Explanations of the Charter of Fundamental Human Rights

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Dear European Court of Justice,

I have the following questions

Under Article 2 (2, the Explanations of the Charter of Fundamental Human Rights states the following:

(a) Article 2(2) of the ECHR:

Deprivation of life shall not be regarded as inflicted in contravention of this article when it results from the use
of force which is no more than absolutely necessary:

(a) in defence of any person from unlawful violence;

(b) in order to effect a lawful arrest or to prevent the escape of a person lawfully detained;

(c) in action lawfully taken for the purpose of quelling a riot or insurrection.

With reference to (c) could you please tell me:

Is there any law in the EU that over-rules this?

If so, what is it and how does it take precedence?

Also, if this is the case, why is this statement in the Charter if it is not applicable?

Yours faithfully,

Tony Blatcher

Fretwell Christopher, Court of Justice of the European Union

Dear Mr Blatcher,

Before dealing with your request I would like to point out that Article 15 of the TFEU only applies to the Court of Justice as regards access to administrative documents. The Court has its own decision implementing this article which is available, along with a form to be used for such requests, on its website (http://curia.europa.eu/jcms/jcms/P_92908/).

I also note that your request is not, in fact, a request for access to documents, but a request for an explanation about a specific point of EU law. In that context I must make absolutely clear that the Court of Justice cannot provide such explanations to individuals outside the context of the cases brought before it. I'm sure you will understand that if the Court were to give such explanations outside the context of cases this could prejudice the work of the Court if such a matter were to subsequently arise in a case before it.

In general I can tell you that the Charter must be respected by EU institutions and by Member States when they are applying EU law. As is stated in Article 6 of the EU Treaty the Charter has the same legal value as the Treaties. This means that it is a source of primary law and cannot be overridden by secondary legislation such as a Directive or Regulation.

Further information about Human Rights in the EU in general can be found here: http://europa.eu/legislation_summaries/h... and more specific information about the Charter can be found here: http://europa.eu/legislation_summaries/h....

If you have any further questions about the functioning of the EU I would suggest that you contact the Europe Direct service (http://europa.eu/europedirect/index_en.htm), which has been set up specifically to answer such queries.

If, in future, you do wish to request access to administrative documents of the Court please do not hesitate to contact us using the form provided on our website as mentioned above.

Kind regards,

Christopher Fretwell
English Section
Press and Information Unit
Court of Justice of the European Union
Tel: +352 4303 3355
Follow us on Twitter: @EUCourtPress

 

-----Original Message-----
From: Tony Blatcher [mailto:[FOI #1038 email]]
Sent: lundi 25 novembre 2013 17:54
To: Registry ECJ
Subject: access to information request - Explanations of the Charter of Fundamental Human Rights

Dear European Court of Justice,

I have the following questions

Under Article 2 (2, the Explanations of the Charter of Fundamental Human Rights states the following:

(a) Article 2(2) of the ECHR:

Deprivation of life shall not be regarded as inflicted in contravention of this article when it results from the use of force which is no more than absolutely necessary:

(a) in defence of any person from unlawful violence;

(b) in order to effect a lawful arrest or to prevent the escape of a person lawfully detained;

(c) in action lawfully taken for the purpose of quelling a riot or insurrection.

With reference to (c) could you please tell me:

Is there any law in the EU that over-rules this?

If so, what is it and how does it take precedence?

Also, if this is the case, why is this statement in the Charter if it is not applicable?

Yours faithfully,

Tony Blatcher

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