This presentation will focus on human rights in the European Union and how they could come into conflict with economic integration and the rights to the free movement of goods, persons, services and capital. It will analyze the methodology of the CJEU to strike a balance between economic freedoms and human rights with the help of the application of the proportionality test. The jurisprudence of the CJEU will be compared with the case law of the US Supreme Court concerning similar conflicts.
The history of the European Union started as an economic integration and was initially centered around the free movement of goods, persons, services and capital. In parallel with guaranteeing these economic freedoms, human rights also gained recognition in the EU. The simultaneous recognition and application of the four economic freedoms and human rights raise the problem that they may get into conflict with each other, so it must be decided which one should be given priority.
In a series of cases, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) had to interpret the relation between economic freedoms and human rights.
