Article 47 of the Charter and the Netherlands A World to Win

The influence of Article 47 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union (EUCFR) in Dutch case law is increasingly visible, especially in administrative law, in particular migration law, and in criminal law, especially in judicial procedures regarding the European Arrest Warrant. Article 47 EUCFR is oft en applied in conjunction with secondary EU law (eg, the Asylum Procedure Directive and the European Arrest Warrant (EAW) Framework Decision) or an international treaty (the Aarhus Convention). The number of preliminary questions concerning Article 47 EUCFR to the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has increased as well, many of them made by lower courts. Although the Dutch courts tend to take Article 47 EUCFR seriously, there is still a world to win. Th e Dutch courts are used to referring to Articles 6 and 13 ECHR rather than Article 47 EUCFR, even if the case is clearly within the scope of EU law. This ‘ Charter indifference ’ might change when the autonomous content of Article 47 EUCFR becomes clearer.