ЉУДСКА ПРАВА У ФРАНЦУСКОМ ПРАВУ
HUMAN RIGHTS IN FRENCH LAW: HIERARCHY AND CONTENT

Summary/Abstract: The idea of human rights has become a part of the system of natural law. At one and the same time, this phenomenon constitutes its strength and its weakness. Its strength lies in the admirable flexibility of the case law of the European Court of Human Rights and the Court of the European Communities, which was free to develop because there were no obstacles lying in its path. Its weakness was reflected in the tendency towards individualism that undermines all institutions of society. While it involved condemning the barrier of outdated legislation, the task was easy, such as when it was necessary to oblige certain countries to recognize the equal status for children born out of wedlock, or freedom of marriage. However, this task became far more delicate when the question was raised about homosexual civil marriage or the right to euthaniasia. The two courts created two systems of cases and this progressed smoothly till recently because their rulings referred to different domains. The decisions of the Court of the European Communities focused on economic issues, and the decisions of the Court in Strasbourg dealt with human rights. Nowadays, the practice of these courts is more inter-related and that is why the question arises as to which legal source should prevail. In that framework, the author considers the possible conflict of the member states' constitutional norms, as well as the rules that are created in Brussels and Luxembourg on the one hand and, the decisions of the Court in Strasbourg, on the other. His idea suggests the need to harmonise the rules that originate from the said different sources.

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