Reply To: Article 1 should (not) link to external legal documents

[Adam Nettles]

I agree with this assessment Jakub and second it, though for some different reasons.

The accession to these treaties is something which is commendable. However, that’s exactly what it should be. Accession to these treaties as a sovereign power, not dependency on treaties within the domestic constitutional order.

I have two issues with this:

Treaties:

Something as fundamental as basic rights should be guaranteed by the Federation itself , not legally sourced to outside treaties. If depending on treaties is acceptable for something like basic rights, why shift from the EU Treaty system in the first place? In order to best protect these rights, they need to be integrated (can even just be copy/pasted, option 2 Jakub suggested) within the new Federal constitutional order. On Jakub’s point about the cementation of these organizations’ existence, that presents another clear concern. The problem is the Federation can’t cement the existence of these organizations as they are international and depend on consent of international signatories. So, say one day every other member state left the Council of Europe. The Federation would be forced to then integrate these rights into their internal order in the end anyway, rewriting all the institutional procedures. This could become quite a contentious and problematic issue in a functioning, governing polity. It would also leave a potential space where citizens could find themselves unprotected. It would be far more prudent to just avoid this all now and add a bill of rights. It also is worth mentioning that other, non Federal signatories (some of which aren’t exactly the strongest supporters of human rights in general, i.e. Turkey and Russia) can exercise influence over the proceedings of some of the international organizations responsible for these conventions.

Accessibility

Secondly, Jakub’s google comment is quite spot on. There are social implications to the fact that a google search doesn’t immediately show ones rights. It shouldn’t be the responsibility of average European citizens to locate and refer to outside documents to know their basic rights. The bulk of people are not lawyers or scholars, nor should they be expected to be. One of the current system’s serious issues is that European rights and institutions are perceived by many to be very distant from much of the people. This constitution should offer a way to remedy that. Part of this should be the creation of a polity where citizens can refer directly to a single document, their constitution, and see a Bill of Rights which clearly enumerates the rights they hold.

Therefore I second following Jakub’s suggestion 2 and 3. Importing the rights in these documents leaving out the procedure, however also supplementing these rights if necessary/desirable. Accession to the treaties can come upon foundation, following the procedures outlined for that.