The Actual Binding Of European Human Rights Regime On EU Member States And The Reasons For The Differences

The issue of human rights has always been important during the history of human society. It has developed a lot of theories and practices. After World War II and the establishment of UN, human rights is becoming more and more active in the international society, as human rights is one of the three goals of UN. Nowadays, the system of global government norms on human rights is almost ready. It's one of the most concerned issues in the international discussion. Moreover, the public opinions in western countries come to think that human rights are more important than sovereignty. Now, the question arises, is it true that human rights are above sovereignty and the system of Westphalia is dying?Following the International Society Theory of'English School', the paper worked on the reforms and adjustments of EU member states in the operation of the European Human Rights Regime (EHRR). The purpose of this work is to tell the EU member states'different attitudes toward the EHRR, or the different influences on the EU member states. Then the paper tries to answer this question: which is more important between sovereignty and human rights in the special international society of EU? The case is meaningful as the EHRR is the most supranational and effective in the world, and EU member states have good records on the protection of human rights.The model that the paper employed is following: It regards EHRR as a controlled variable, the sovereignty of EU member states as an independent variable, and the different attitudes toward the EHRR as induced variable. If there is many differences, we can say that sovereignty is more important than human rights.Mainly composed by European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), EHRR has impacted the EU member states deeply in the field of human rights policies, legal norms and even political constitutions. To some extent, EHRR is higher than EU member states'sovereignty. So, the most important characteristic of EHRR is supranationality. To understand EHRR completely, the paper firstly introduced Council of Europe (COE), including its history, backgrounds and relationship with EU. When ECHR was drafted, the legal function of the ECHR was intently ignored. There was only European Human Rights Commission(EHRC) without ECtHR. Member states of COE could explain ECHR on their own account. Then, the ECtHR was established as a temporary body in 1959. ECtHR turned into a permanent establishment In 1998. ECtHR got more and more authority with the merits of impartiality, gradualism and flexibility. Now, it has developed into European Constitutional Court from a cold war instrument, from the late 1980s to Treaty of Lisbon of 2009. The EHRR's authority on EU's member states is steady, mature, and effective. Moreover, EHRR is the common external variable to EU and its member states. So EGRR is considered as control variable.However, the super'nationalism of ECRR is all a fa?ade. The paper studied 5 EU member states,. The cases indicate that the relations between the ECRR and EU member states are much more complicated than what the norms say. Although the ECRR has a high statues in every domestic legal system of EU member state and impacts on the their legal sovereignty in essence, there are so many differences in complying with the demands of ECRR. According to the model that the paper employed, the paper comes to the conclusion that the sovereignty of EU member state is still dominating the basal orders in the special international society of EU and sovereignty is not subject to human rights. In conclusion, The author think that the sovereignty is still the ultimate power in the governace of human rights at least for now. It's hard to say that'human rights'is higher than the'sovereignty'. The paper regards EU as a special international society, in other words, it is not only an"international society", but also a"world society". Then the"international society"dominates the fundamental order of the EU society, though the"world society"has been increasing significantly. The Westphalia system is impacted by many factors, including human rights; however, the sovereignty is still the dominating factor in European Regime of Human Rights. The process of global governance will still go along in the framework of sovereignty system.