The contribution of the court of justice to the codification of the founding values of the European Union

The road to the developing constitutional identity for the European Union (EU) culminated in the formal identification of the principles enshrined in former Article 6 TEU as founding values, first in terms of Article I-2 of the defunct Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe and eventually in Article 2 TEU, as introduced by the Lisbon treaty. Moving from this assumption, the research is aimed at investigating the scope of new Article 2 TEU from a case law perspective, paying attention to the contribution of the EU Court of Justice to the definition of each value. First of all, it will be underscored that, unlike the previous wording, the new provision clarifies and deepens the catalogue of fundamental values, adding a reference to human dignity and equality and inserting a specific reference to the rights of persons belonging to minorities. Secondly, it will be argued that, although a precise definition of each founding value is not easy, a valuable contribution to their interpretation may be found in the case law issued by the EU Court of Justice, which on several occasions made reference to the values of the EU