Fundamental rights and the proportionality principle

Abstract

The paper assesses the widespread use of the test of proportionality in fundamental rights adjudication. While constitutional and human rights courts all over the world appear to be consistently engaged in deploying the test of proportionality in order to assess the permissibility of a given rights limitation, this approach is under severe criticism insofar as it is considered an attack to the very idea of fundamental rights. The paper will discuss this criticism of the use of proportionality, and will provide a defense of its use by courts in light of some basic features of the contemporary discourse of fundamental rights.