ABSTRACT
The interpretation of fundamental rights is seen as an outcome of a cooperative process in which both the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) and the member states’ courts have a voice and participate in. The CJEU determines the meaning of the European Union (EU) fundamental rights in light of the structure and objectives of EU law – the EU is not a human rights court, and it is not its task to tell the member states how to protect human rights, except to the extent that this is necessary to achieve the objectives of the EU. The claim of primacy which EU law makes, and the nature of the EU legal orders as an independent source of law, means that such allowance must always be on EU’s terms. In mapping the sites of constitutional dialogue within the European legal order, X. Groussot identifies various direct and indirect routes by which dialogue takes place between courts.
