The right to a fair trial in the European Convention on Human Rights, in the Fundamental Rights of the European Union and in the Constitution of the Republic of Poland – selected issues (part II)

The purpose of this paper is the presentation of some selected issues connected with the right to a fair trial (the right to court, the right to legal proceedings), which is a key element of human rights protection and serves to provide procedural means to safeguard the rule of law. The right to a fair trial is generally guaranteed in acts of international law and in democratic constitutions. The Author of this paper compares regulations of this issue in the European Convention on Human Rights, in the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union and in the Constitution of the Republic of Poland. Because of the extent of the presented subject, article was divided into two parts – the first one, which contains the introduction to the subject of the right to a fair trial and the analysis of this issue in the European Convention on Human Rights and the second part, which presents the regulation of the right to a fair trial in the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union and in the Constitution of the Republic of Poland.

This paper analyzes how the approach of the European Union to the protection of fundamental rights evolved. It focuses on primary legislation, which ranks highest in the hierarchy of EU sources of law. For this purpose, the author examines the Founding Treaties, the Reform Treaties, and the Charter of Fundamental Rights. The paper focuses on modifying the Treaties due to the complexity of the subject matter. The considerations discussed in this paper set the ground for the outline of the formation of a multi-level system of human rights protection in the European Union, as well as for the presentation of the current state of the law, which undoubtedly constitutes an important contribution to the regulation of the issue discussed.

Evolution of Health Rights in the European Union in the Prism of Human Rights

As an economic and political union of states, the European Union has historically focused neither on health nor on human rights. Since the adoption of the Charter of Fundamental Rights, the link between fundamental rights and human health has been noticeable. Respect for human dignity and individual decisions played an important role in the evolution of the understanding of the right to health as a human right in the EU legal system. The aim of the article is to analyze the development of health rights in EU law and answer the question: does recognizing the right to health as a human right result in a specific legal claim? The article uses a purposeful-functional and axiological interpretation, and the historical method.