The Practice of the Principle of Democracy: Focusing on the Development of EU Citizens’ Rights
Date Issued
2014
Date
2014
Author(s)
Huang, Wei-Ju
Abstract
This essay aims at analyzing the European citizens’ rights and the value of democracy that reveals through their legal bases in fundamental treaties of European Union (the EU).According to the traditional theory, the relationship between nation states and their national is decided by the state power and presented through the whole citizens’ rights and obligations it creates, those relationship has been categorized by Jellinek’s theory of status. To the EU, whose power came from the limited authorization of it member states, the relationship between the EU and European citizens is arranged differently, which also changed the practice of democracy and the regulation of European citizenship’s rights. In the Treaty of Lisbon , the EU absorbed the European Community, acquired its legal personality and built its legitimacy through the emphasis on the principle of democracy and the role that the European citizens as the origin of legitimacy of the EU. By examining the European citizens’ rights, we can see the interaction between academic theories and legal/political practice, and then predict the future development of the EU.
Before entering into the analysis, the thesis clarified the difference between international organization, the original character of the EU, and nation state under the theory of sovereignty, then introduced the historical development of the EU that made it turn from economic into politic community, which explained the requirement of individual rights in the European level and the concept of European citizen to justify its governance with the value of democracy. With the background knowledge, we can see that the freedom of move and residence and the right of political participation are the two main supports of the democracy in the EU. The freedom of move and residence made the cross-boundary political life possible for the European citizens. With the magnification of the political integration of the EU, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) also extended its application into the examination on member states’ laws in various subjects. Meanwhile, the right of political participation showed the origin of legitimacy of the governance and the concretion of the principle of democracy in the EU. Although in the Treaty of Lisbon, the norms of European citizens’ rights are still bounded by special character of the EU and show little practical improvement in a short time, the emphasis of principle of democracy, with the introduction of The Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union still provide the legal base for the ECJ to strengthen democracy in the EU by developing extended political rights and social rights.
Subjects
歐洲聯盟
主權
民主原則
民主正當性
民主赤字
聯盟公民
Type
thesis
File(s)![Thumbnail Image]()
Loading...
Name
ntu-103-R98a21013-1.pdf
Size
23.32 KB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum
(MD5):a9d5316dac212e869e895fb5f04ad992