Particularly since the adoption of the Charter of Fundamental Rights in 2000, fundamental rights have become much more visible in the law- and policy-making of the EU : although they have been protected by the European Court of Justice since the 1970s, fundamental rights are now at the very centre of what the EU does in a variety of fields linked either to the establishment of the internal market or to the creation of an area of freedom, security of justice. This evolution will be further encouraged by the role played by the EU Fundamental Rights Agency, which was established in 2007. This book takes stock of these developments, describing how this regime has evolved, and what are both its promises and its limitations. It is the first book, in sum, about the EU as a human rights organisation.

Author Biography

Olivier De Schutter, the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to food, is currently Professor of Human Rights Law at the University of Louvain (UCL, Belgium) and at the College of Europe (Natolin), as well as a Member of the Global Law School Faculty at New York University and a Visiting Professor at Columbia University (2007-8). He holds an LLB from the University of Louvain and an LL.M. from Harvard University, as well as a doctorate in law from the University of Louvain. He set up the Delegation to the EU of the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), and later chaired the EU Network of Independent Experts on Fundamental Rights, a group of high-level independent experts instituted by the European Commission and the European Parliament to monitor compliance by both the EU institutions and the EU Member States with the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights. He acted on a number of occasions as an expert for the Council of Europe and for the European Union on human rights issues.