The Conflict And Balance Between The Protection Of Fundamental Rights And The Principle Of Mutual Trust In The EU

The principle of mutual trust and the protection of fundamental rights,primary principles of European Union law,which are of the same hierarchy.The principle of mutual trust requires automatic and immediate recognition and enforcement from a member state when it received administrative or judicial decisions issued by another member state.The base of such mutual trust exists in the common constitutional tradition,similar democratic system and the shared values amongst member states.In this regard,the EU calls out the mutual trust in other member states' legal and judicial system.While the protection of fundamental rights,which is confirmed by The Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union,is also a prime value and object of the EU,when the implementation of the principle of mutual trust endangers and undermines the protection of fundamental rights in the Area of Freedom,Security and Justice(AFSJ),frequent and intensive conflicts of the two principle emerges.After a close observation of case law of European Court of Justice and European Court of Human Rights,extensive fundamental rights have been infringed and challenged in AFSJ,including the prohibition of torture and inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment,right to liberty,respect for private and family life,protection of personal data,right to an effective remedy and to a fair trial,etc.The absolutory nature of the principle of mutual trust resulting in the full enforcement of decisions and judgment in which the protection of the above fundamental rights have been infringed,which leaves little room for rights remedy.In 2016,the key judgment made by European Court of Justice in Aranyosi case had changed the absolutory nature of the principle of mutual trust to some extent,and temporarily alleviated the sharp conflicts between the principle of mutual trust and the protection of fundamental rights.Meanwhile,the threats to personal data and the right to privacy exclusive rights have been highlighted during the course of building of pan-Europe data collection network.The root cause of the conflict between the principle of mutual trust and the protection of fundamental rights appears in the inherent “structural democratic deficit” of the EU;meanwhile,there are also incoherent factors within EU law,for instance,the contradiction between the multiple legal obligations of member states,and the inconsistency of the scope and intensity of the principle of trust.Additionally,since the implementation of the principle of mutual trust in AFSJ is largely based on political compromise,the legal system,constitutional traditions and judicial developments All various among member states,therefore,a de facto “distrust” is unavoidable which renders the compulsory obligation of “mutual trust” ill-founded.Possible measures to mitigate the conflict between the two principles are: first,to reduce democratic deficits by promoting citizen participation in EU election and the legislative activism of the European Parliament;second,to continue to promote the establishment of uniform procedural rights protection standards in EU law,to improve procedural rules for judicial information exchange,and to clarify the standard of proof for the refusal of the recognition and execution in civil judicial cooperation.More importantly,to avoid an excessively rigid interpretation of EU law and to save space for the EU to further establish rules for fundamental rights protection,and for the introduction of human rights law in the enforcement of EU law.