Constitutional Rights in the “Area of Freedom, Security and Justice”

This paper looks at the implications of the development of a European “Area of Freedom, Security and Justice” (AFSJ) as a constitutional project. The paper aims to address both the abstract need for theorizing the AFSJ in constitutional context as well as the concrete need to pay more attention to the enforcement of constitutional rights with regard to mutual recognition instruments. While it is often emphasized (in legal scholarship) that the different components of the AFSJ need to be adequately balanced, fewer attempts have been made to examine the meaning of balance when discussing the impact of constitutional rights and proportionality in a security related context. In my paper examples will be drawn from practice, for example case law in the area of EU criminal law, by looking at the operation of the European Arrest Warrant. In addition, the present paper assesses the notion of ‘trust’ and aims to discuss why this concept has played a crucial role in the development of an “Area of Freedom, Security and Justice”.