Development in the Procedure of the Court of Justice of European Union: From Protecting Economic Foundations to Protecting Human Rights

Following the ratification of the Lisbon Treaty, European Human Right Charter was recognized as part of the Union's primary law. As a result, all the bodies of the Union, including Court of Justice of European Union, placed human rights at an elevated position. According to the treaty constitution of the union, CJEU as the judicial pillar of the union has the duty to protect the constitutional law of the organization, and the CJEU itself in many of its cases stipulates on this matter. Taking the background, objectives and foundations of the union into consideration, this organization started its activities with the domination of economic issues, and thus its basic rights were formed on the basis of the very economic-oriented nature. Over the past two decades, cases have been brought before CJEU wherein human rights conflicted with the economic principles of the union. On the one hand, in these cases, the Court was obliged to maintain the framework of the economic-centered constitutional law of the Union, and, on the other hand, the Court found itself committed to its aspiration of defending human rights. For that reason, the Court had to choose one of these two. Describing the process of entering the Court into human rights cases, the present study also investigates the cases of the mentioned conflict.