Luxembourg and Strasbourg

The Court of Justice of the European Union and the European Court of Human Rights: The Story of Two Courts

Europe has two major courts at the European Union level. One is the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), established by the 1957 Treaty of Rome and recently reorganized under the 2008 Lisbon Treaty, located in Luxembourg. The other is the European Court of Human Rights, established and formed under a treaty entirely different from the Treaty of Rome.

[Photo by Beopryul Newspaper]

The Court of Justice of the European Union, created under the Lisbon Treaty as a regional international organization of Europe, makes judicial decisions concerning the European Union. It mainly deals with the consistency of interpretation of European Union law, which is a special law as a type of international law and regional international law, and the European Commission (EU Commission) or individual EU Member States enforcing EU law. Since it was established by an international treaty, it is a judicial body that makes judicial decisions not only on EU law but also on international law, and within the EU it is called the "Luxembourg Court."

The European Court of Human Rights does not have the function of making judicial decisions on EU law, but its purpose is to make judicial decisions on the European Convention on Human Rights. The European Convention on Human Rights is an international human rights declaration agreed upon by member states at the 1951 London Treaty, which has more member states than the European Union. It can be seen as influenced by the 1789 French Declaration of the Rights of Man and the 1950 UN Human Rights Declaration of the San Francisco Treaty. Based on this, the European Court of Human Rights interprets and makes judicial decisions on fundamental rights, constitutional and universal values of human rights, thus it is an international court with a progressive tendency. Within the EU, it is called the "Strasbourg Court."

Luxembourg and Strasbourg: The Story of Two Cities

Having briefly looked at the two courts, let us examine the two cities where these courts are located. The Luxembourg Court and the Strasbourg Court are about 192 kilometers apart, approximately 2 hours and 30 minutes by car, and 1 hour and 30 minutes by high-speed train. Since the two courts are the heart of EU law and EU human rights law, there is a lot of personal and material exchange between them. The composition of the courts is diverse and international, and similarly, Luxembourg and Strasbourg are also international cities. Luxembourg has a population of about 650,000, with two-thirds being foreigners and only one-third native residents. Strasbourg, while not having as high a proportion of foreigners as Luxembourg, has about 500,000 people with roughly one-fifth being foreigners.

As these two cities are international and diverse, the legal professionals in these cities also have very varied backgrounds and experiences. For example, one of the 18 public law professors at the University of Strasbourg, a classmate of the author from Sorbonne Law School, is a French-born, Italian-national French-qualified lawyer, holder of a doctorate in international law and the public law professorship qualification (Agr?gation de droit public). Upon appointment at the University of Strasbourg, his first job, he moved to Luxembourg, the center of EU law, and served as a visiting professor at the Max Planck Institute for International Law in Luxembourg, residing there for over five years to meet the requirements for Luxembourg nationality.

Upon acquiring Luxembourg nationality, he maintained his public law professorship at the University of Strasbourg while lecturing at the University of Luxembourg and also advising Luxembourg constitutional institutions. In other words, rather than nationality or origin, legal professionals with the ability to handle international law and European law are concentrated in Luxembourg and Strasbourg, and this pool of human resources acts as a driving force for the development of European law.

The Story of Two Courts and Two Cities: What Implications Does It Have for the Republic of Korea?

The stories of the two courts dealing with international law and European law?the Court of Justice of the European Union and the European Court of Human Rights?and the two cities where these courts are located may seem like "a story from a faraway land" given the current situation in the Republic of Korea, which lacks international judicial bodies. However, through the stories of the two European courts and two cities where international legal professionals compete, it is hoped that the Korean legal community can also compete in the global market based on direction and capabilities, and someday write its own version of the story of two courts and two cities.

Hong Seungpyo, Espee & Cie., Luxembourg·EU Attorney

※This article is based on content supplied by Law Times.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.