Keywords: Spitzenkandidat – lead candidate – material constitution – European Commission – Parliament – art. 17(7) TEU.
Legal studies on the method for the appointment of the President of the Commission, known as Spitzenkandidaten, are not frequent. Yet this method has been known and discussed at least for...
Abstract: This Insight examines the developments in the EU restrictive measures against Russia in the aftermath of the full-scale aggression in Ukraine, focusing on the novel "(g) criterion" designed to target Russian businesspersons (often referred to as Russian oligarchs). The analysis illustrates the recent litigation before the General...
Abstract: This Insight examines the stance the EU should adopt towards the Russian invasion of Ukraine on the basis of the political thought of Immanuel Kant, Thomas Hobbes, and Niccolò Machiavelli. Taking as its starting point Josep Borrell’s comment that “we are too much Kantians and not enough Hobbesians” at the 2022 EU Ambassadors’...
Abstract: In the J.K. case, the CJEU condemned Polish legislation derogating, in the name of the freedom to choose a contract, from the prohibition of discrimination based on sexual orientation in employment and occupation. However, one may wonder about the scope of this decision concerning the exemptions permitted by Directive 2000/78 when...
Abstract: From an EU social law perspective, the decision of the Court of justice in J.K. appears prima facie to be a step forward in the construction of a universal labour law regime. However, the case strictly limits the progress towards an assimilation of the situation of employees and self-employed, in EU social law. First, by...
Abstract: After more than forty years of discussion and a decade after the CJEU struck down EU accession to the ECHR in Opinion 2/13, negotiators provisionally approved a new version of the Accession Instruments in March 2023. This Insight examines how this new draft of the Accession Instruments has addressed the mutual trust concerns...
Abstract: The J.K. v TP S.A ruling is an important judgment, and not only because it led the Court to settle main questions of substantive law. In the context of adapting social law to new forms of employment relations, the Court first clarified the personal scope of Directive 2000/78/CE. Secondly, it addressed the relationship between non-...
Abstract: One way of understanding the JK ruling is to see it as the symptom of a war of values within the European Union. In the context of “illiberal democracy”, the question of sexual identity resonates and conflicts with that of religious identity, creating a trouble within European values. In an attempt to resolve it, the jurisprudence tries to...