Publisher Linde - Prague, 2002
Bohumil Pikna
The author deals in this publication with very topical, but also complex matters concerning internal and external security and with matters concerning public order, public health etc. The theme is processed from the point of view of establishing of the European area of freedom, security and justice with a special attention to the area of security after the terrorist attacks on the U.S.A. on September 11, 2001. The publication deals with the issues in a comprehensive way, i.e. not only as policy of the European Union in the area of three EU Pillars, but also from the point of view of International Law and impacts on the system of fundamental rights and freedoms protection in democratic European countries.
He gives a detailed description of the system of fundamental rights protection in the European Union and its genesis with a special attention to international and regional instruments, relation between legal instruments and the systems of the European Union and the Council of Europe, sources of fundamental rights in the EU, including a role and methodology of the European Court of Justice during the establishing of the fundamental rights system. He deals with issues of Community basic legal principles and related legal issues in more detail.
In the main part, the author deals with the Charter on Fundamental Rights of the European Union and its legal and material dimension, its character, contributions, importance, as well as competences of the European Court of Justice and demarcation of jurisdiction of both the European Courts in the field of fundamental rights. Using comments and explanations of Union experts to individual articles of the European Union Charter on Fundamental Rights, the author carries out a fairly detailed legal analysis of individual provisions of the Charter, and at the same time, he makes a precise legislative comparison with law in force in the Czech Republic, including references to necessity of legislative amendments to Czech law "de lege ferenda" on the date of accession of the Czech Republic to the Union.
The last specialist part concerns sensitive matters of fundamental rights in the light of topical issues related to combating the international terrorism after September 11, 2001, especially from the view of International Public Law and European Law (EC/EU Law). In connection with the explanation of international legal context and current leading principles of International Law in respect of matters concerning so-called humanitarian interventions, and especially of specific reality following September 11, 2001, the author deals with possibilities of application of the international legal instruments against terrorism. He supports the conclusion that these instruments are not efficient enough, are under influence of the time when they arose, and he speaks up for the changes of them for the benefit of the international community's efficient combating new very dangerous forms of international (global) terrorism after the attacks on the U.S.A. This part of the publication describes and analyses, fairly in detail, the measures within the European Union in the fight against the international terrorism after September 11, with regard to the fact that the author has had at his disposal many European documents issued for this purpose, including documents of competent working groups (European warrant of arrest, Union definition of terrorist actions, initiatives to improve the international instruments for combating terrorism, etc.).
In this part, he also deals with legal possibilities of fundamental rights restriction in case of similar dangerous terrorist attacks and antiterrorist measures - legislative and others - from the part of the Czech Republic in the last months. A special attention is devoted to the role and position of intelligence services in the system of combating international terrorism. The author emphasizes a new element in this fight after September 11, 2001, representing a direct and in Union corresponding documents openly expressed integration of the intelligence services and their specific role in this fight. In this part, a deserved attention is also devoted to measures of the Council of Europe in the fight against terrorism, with a special regard to topical instruments and activities after 11 September. The author gathers information from the latest original Council of Europe documents in English versions, in particular from the documents worked out by Steering Committee for Human Rights (CDDH), Group of specialists on human rights and the fight against terrorism (DH-S-TER) and Multidisciplinary group on international action against terrorism (GMT). In this connection, he deals concretely with Draft Guidelines for the fight against terrorisms and the work on up-dating the antiterrorist convention.
The second great part of the publication is represented by translations of European documents, or excerpts for the given purpose. There are nine important working translations of case law of the European Court of Justice published in relation to public order and public security in connection with free movement of workers. The other translations are excerpts of corresponding provisions of primary European Law, excerpts from EC documents concerning freedom of movement of persons, documents concerning right of access to EU institutions documents, matters of equal treatment and chances of men and women, personal data protection and the most important EU documents concerning fight against international terrorism adopted after September 11, 2001.
The purpose of this publication is to provide those, who deal with these matters in their professions, with a specialist text, as well as to provide professional public with the information concerning an essential document - Charter on Fundamental Rights of the European Union. The aim is also to provide a teaching aid for students mainly of the Police Academy of the Czech Republic, which can serve also for the purpose of work on dissertations, especially with regard to a close membership of the Czech Republic of the European Union. The publication thus represents further contribution to the process of the so-called Europeization of educational process at this Academy, where the author - Bohumil Pikna - gives lectures on International and European Law.
The review of this publication was carried out by acknowledged experts of the Faculty of Law, Charles University, Prague - JUDr., PhDr. Michal Tomášek, DrSc., the Department of European Law, and Doc. JUDr. Pavel Šturma, CSc., Head of Department of International Law. Both the reviewers have also drawn up an introduction to this book.