Chapter 11 Flashcards
What do direct effect and primacy of EU law imply?
It implies that every national court is a decentralised European Court even though they are not full European Courts because they are not entitled to annul European acts, which is an exclusive competence of the ECJ.
What is the principle of national procedural autonomy?
The Union recognises a procedural autonomy of national judiciaries in the enforcement of European Law
What are the two constitutional principles?
- Equivalence principle: national courts must act as if they were enforcing national law when enforcing EU law
- Effectiveness principle: not to make the enforcement of EU law ‘impossible in practice’ and excessively difficult to enforce
What is the historical evolution of the effectiveness principle?
1) Minimum standard period / judicial restraint
The Court showed respect towards procedural autonomy of national courts and it only required not to make the enforcement impossible
2) Maximum standard period / judicial intervention
The Court aspired to the full effectiveness of European law
3) Medium standard period / judicial balance
The Court tried to find a balance between the two periods. The procedures that made the enforcement of European rights ‘excessively difficult’ would fail the effectiveness test
What is the Francovich Doctrine about?
The Court insisted that there should be a European remedy to make States liable for damages in case of wrongdoing.
The case: the Italian State failed to implement a directive which protected wages of citizens who were employed in companies that had become insolvent, by forcing those companies to pay all outstanding wages. Francovich was not getting paid and he sued the company to pay his wages, bringing the matter before the ECJ.
The Court established that the right to sue for State violation was founded on European law and thus an European remedy should exist.
How was the principle of state liability recognised?
The principle of Union liability for breaches of European Law
What are the three conditions for State liability?
State liability if:
1) The breached individual rights are identifiable (strict liability)
2) There is a sufficiently serious breach and if there is a direct link between the breach of the law and the damage sustained by the injured parties
3) There is a non-implementation of a directive
What is judicial cooperation?
The Union has adopted measures to coordinate national courts in order to avoid parallel proceedings in different courts about the same matter. Principle of judicial cooperation and mutual recognition of national judgements.
