European Judicial Cooperation in the fundamental rights practice of national courts (JUDCOOP) was a DG Justice supported project and lasted from 1 January 2013 until 30 June 2014
JUDCOOP focus was judicial dialogue and cooperation in the area of fundamental rights. The Project built on the conviction that collaboration and contact between the legal professions of the Member States and the European Union are indispensable in the field of fundamental rights adjudication; all the more, given the multi-level system of fundamental rights protection consolidated by the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty and the Charter of Fundamental Rights.
The Project aimed to trigger a process of cross-state and cross-discipline mutual learning on judicial cooperation. Efforts need to go beyond the mere exchange of information through conferences in search of more effective ways to foster judicial dialogue in practice. Thus, during the project, judges from different MS indeed practiced judicial dialogue; they engaged in exploring its potential together with academics for the purpose of improving fundamental rights adjudication in a multi-level setting where provisions of international, EU, ECHR and national law interact.
The objective of the project was to promote and develop the dialogue existing between the European judges by exploring concrete dimensions of judicial cooperation in the area of selected EU fundamental rights, namely principle of non-discrimination, freedom of expression and fair trial. The project created small epistemic communities composed of judges, scholars and practitioners discussing current and past cases that have created conflicting interpretations. As a result of these discussions, the national judges acquired a wide toolkit to engage into judicial cooperation with other Courts while addressing issues concerning implementation of fundamental rights.
All the material produced in the project are available in Centre’s publications web page.