Aksjologiczne podstawy Karty Praw Podstawowych Unii Europejskiej
Axiological bases of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union

Summary/Abstract: It does not seem accurate to recognise that the category of universality primarily serves to emphasise that the values at stake are not merely particularistic values, which are addressed in the next paragraph of the preamble to the Charter [of Fundamental Rights of the European Union]. The Charter uses the term “common values” to describe what’s supra-particular. Both the systematics of values and the systematics of the Charter [of Fundamental Rights of the European Union] as a whole, based on it, point to the priority of rights over freedoms – unlike that adopted in the new Polish Constitution, which speaks of freedoms and rights. In doing so, the Charter recognises, as can already be seen from the title, “the rights” in the broader sense as an overarching category encompassing both rights in the narrower sense and freedoms. The insertion of freedoms concerning economic life into the preamble [of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union] is a unique move compared to other human rights instruments. It is a procedure justified by the historical circumstances of the emerging Union, which was primarily economic in nature. Recognising the inviolability [of human dignity in the preamble of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union] is not equivalent to recognising that it is not actually possible to violate human rights or, by analogy, to act contrary to the requirements of dignity. Pointing to the inviolability of dignity or rights serves to articulate the idea that an individual is the purpose themselves and hence must not be treated purely instrumentally. This is the basic idea that the category of “inviolability” serves to express.

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