In interpreting the human rights protections provided by the general principles of EU law (described in the Court cases section above), the ECJ had already dealt with the issue of whether the rights protected by those general principles applied to member states.
Ved fortolkningen af de generelle principper i EU-lovgivningen (beskrevet ovenfor), har EU-Domstolen allerede behandlet spørgsmålet om, hvorvidt sådanne generelle principper gælder for medlemsstaterne.