Diritto Pubblico Comparato ed Europeo

Sommario

1. Premessa. – 2. La questione della natura giuridica dell’accesso. – 3. La giurisprudenza comunitaria. – 4. (Segue): la sentenza Kujier. – 5. La posizione della dottrina. – 6. Osservazioni sulla possibile soluzione del problema della natura giuridica. – 7. Conclusioni.

Abstract

The legal nature of the right to gain access to European Community documents is still an open question. In particular, it is difficult to determine the keystone in the rule-exception system that guarantees this right. The laws concerning this topic do not explain whether this right is given to European citizens through single rules or whether these are the expression of a more general principle and this has an effect on the rule-exception relationship in the access to documents. Another problem that needs to be solved is whether the right to gain access to documents should be considered a general principle of the legal systems of all the member states or whether it should simply be considered a general rule. Neither the case law of the European Community nor scholars have so far offered clear indications on this point. However having examined the procedures followed by the institutions and national legislation disciplining this topic one could conclude that there are the elements necessary to consider the right to gain access to documents as a general principle of European.