The Humanitarian Principle of Punishment and the Protection of Prisoners within the European Legal Space

This publication highlights the importance of the ECtHR acquis to foster the consolidation of the European Area of Justice, mainly based on judicial cooperation in criminal matters and it underscores the practical implications and obligations for EU policy-makers who wish to harmonize measures to approximate the law of EU Member State and achieve a higher level of mu60 tual trust between national authorities. Failure to comply with such obligations would result in the measures being declared unlawful. In this regard, the central role and non-derogation of the rights described in the ECHR, and the minimum standards of protection established by the Strasbourg Court, have already been highlighted. Such standards affect the Union through art. 6 § 3 TEU and art. 52 and 53 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights, being parameters used for the interpretation and application of the Charter. The analysis of those provisions shows that, although the CFREU plays a major role in the European system of protection of fundamental rights, the rules of compliance mentioned above, the rights guaranteed by the ECHR as “general principles of the EU law”, even after the Treaty of Lisbon, assign to the ECHR (animated by the Strasbourg jurisprudence) a paramount importance within a system that is only “partially” integrated by the protection of human rights.(Conclusions)