Abstract: In two parallel decisions delivered in February 2022, the Court of Justice has rejected the actions for annulment brought by Hungary and Poland against the new “Budgetary Conditionality Regulation”. The Court has confirmed that the institutions used the correct legal basis (art. 322(1)(a) TFEU), that the Regulation does not circumvent the...
Abstract: The reaction to the climate crisis is dominated by recurring political failure and a reluctance to engage in ambitious climate action individually and publicly. Against this setting the judiciary has been called into action to address the climate crisis, adapting general principles, including fundamental rights, to the phenomenon of global...
Abstract: With the judgment of 24 February 2022 in case C-364/20 P Bernis and Others v SRB ECLI:EU:C:2022:115, the European Court of Justice has dismissed the appeal lodged by Ernests Bernis, Oļegs Fiļs, OF Holding SIA and Cassandra Holding Company SIA (shareholders of ABLV Bank) against the order of the General Court rendered on 14 May...
Abstract: In Thelen Technopark (ECLI:EU:C:2022:33), the Court of Justice held that art. 15 of the Services Directive cannot be invoked against a conflicting national law in a horizontal dispute, even though the Court had already definitively established the incompatibility of this national law with the Services Directive in an earlier...
Abstract: The recent rule of law crisis is partly due to the inertia of the European institutions regarding the implementation of the mechanism within art. 7 TEU. This is despite the variety of actions that could be taken by the EU regarding maintaining high levels of respect for the rule of law within the EU. Hence it seems that the rule of law...
Abstract: A significant judgment of the Grand Chamber of the CJEU was handed down in case C-561/19 Consorzio Italian Management e Catania Multiservizi and Catania Multiservizi ECLI:EU:C:2021:799 (CIM) in October 2021 on the scope of discretion of national courts of last resort when deciding to make a preliminary reference under art...
Abstract: So far, climate change litigation in the European Union has been a disappointment, since the European Court of Justice denied the admissibility of two promising cases in 2021: Sabo ECLI:EU:C:2021:24 and Carvalho ECLI:EU:T:2019:252. Nonetheless, the European human rights litigation can still play a significant role in...
Abstract: The CJEU’s approach to international law in the context of territorial disputes has generally attracted substantial criticism, both for its engagement therewith – i.e., its tendency to cherry-pick the applicable rules – and reliance thereon – i.e., its tendency to apply international rules in a dissimilar fashion to their...
Abstract: In 1996, the Court of Justice ruled out that prosecutors could refer questions for a preliminary ruling on the grounds that their task is not to settle a dispute in complete independence but to submit it to a court by means of criminal prosecution. In case C-66/20 XK ECLI:EU:C:2021:200, the Court was asked to deal with the same...
Abstract: The climate crisis is – as far as we can see in 2021 – the greatest challenge of the 21st century. The existence of global warming as a human-made problem and the abstract need of transiting away from fossil energy sources is largely accepted. The question, however, of how to best achieve this transition is a major bone of contention –...