ABSTRACT
The European Union’s Charter of Fundamental Rights originated in 2000. It was not enshrined in the treaties, and its legal status was in doubt. The (failed) Constitutional Treaty of 2004 would have incorporated the Charter and thus given it legal effect. This has now been achieved under the Treaty of Lisbon which declares that the Charter will have ‘legally binding value’. The Charter does not replace either the human rights laws of Member States or the European Convention on Human Rights, but rather reinforces the EU’s commitment to the protection of individual rights.
