CYIL vol. 11 (2020)

CYIL 11 (2020) ANALYSING THE FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS MESSIAH rights protection in Europe, 2013; De Visser: Juggling Centralized Constitutional Review and the EU’s primacy in the domestic enforcement of the Charter: A. V. B., 2015). Given the predominantly decentralized effects of EU law, the national dimension of understanding, reflection, and application of the Charter forms the crucial issue for the functioning of EU fundamental rights protection. The relevant part of scholarly literature deals with these aspects of the practical impact of the EU Charter at the domestic level (Burgorgue-Larsen: The EU Charter of Fundamental Rights seized by the national judges, 2017, Laffranque: The Protection of Fundamental Rights Post Lisbon: The Interaction Between the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, the European Convention on Human Rights and National Constitutions, Tartu University Press, 2012; Mazák, Jánošiková: The Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union in Proceedings Before Courts of the Slovak Republic, 2016; Svobodová: Působnost Listiny základních práv EU v kontextu judikatury Ústavního soudu ČR, 2018; Hamuľák, Sulyok, Kiss: Measuring the ‘EU’clidean Distance between EU Law and the Hungarian Constitutional Court – Focusing on the Position of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, 2019; Kustra-Rogatka, Hamuľák: Keeping the Safe Distance – Chapters from Randomized (Non)Application of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights before Polish Constitutional Tribunal, 2019). The vast majority of the texts I mentioned above deal with horizontal topics, or they offer comments on selected case law. Such general (in other words constitutional) issues related to the EU Charter certainly deserve academic attention, especially given the fact that the EU Charter is to a certain extent still an “unexplored territory”. The evaluated edited volume does not lag behind the described general trends and pays due attention to the mentioned key issues in its general part. However, this is not just an artificial transfer of the European (Western) debate to our environment. On the contrary, the book opens up new and not commonly discussed topics in this regard, such as the impact of the EU Charter on the EU legislative process (e.g. a certain ex ante enforcement of the EU Charter); the practice of using the EU Charter in order to measure of the legality of EU acts (a topic which is somewhat overshadowed by the understanding of the EU Charter as a tool for controlling Member States); the process of “enlightening” the EU Charter into national practice beyond its scope, etc. Here I see the first argument for its added value. Another “enriching” element of the book under review is the fact that its second (special) part is devoted to the impact and influence of the EU Charter in specific areas of the protection of fundamental rights, on specific selected institutes, and areas of legal regulation. Such issues are analysed in a minor way in the discourse of EU law. And here I see another reason for a positive evaluation of the book. Due to a very broad arena of potential impact of the EU Charter, the authors were only able to deal with certain selected issues. However, their selection is very interesting, progressive, and reflective of current developments and trends. 3. The book that focuses on complex issues The structure of the book follows the intent of editors to offer a complex view on the EU Charter and key phenomena within the EU constitutional edifice. The first part deals with general issues of application and the impact of the Charter and contains a valuable discussion on the impact of the Charter on supranational and domestic legislative and enforcement

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