Articles for category: English Articles

Rule of Law Retail and Rule of Law Wholesale: The ECJ’s (Alarming) »Celmer« Decision

A craving for the rule of law can be satisfied in two ways.   You can invoke it legally through a case-by-case checking of its presence in any particular instance (though of course, retail assessment means you’re at the mercy of the court near you) or you can better guarantee a steady and plentiful delivery by contracting wholesale, thus providing a legal constraint on the supplier’s ability to deviate.   This week’s decision of the European Court of Justice in the “Celmer” case (Case C-216/18 PPU, Minister for Justice and Equality v LM) tells us that the rule of law is now available retail in the European Union, but it is not now – and probably can never be – available wholesale.  

28. Juli 2018

How to Assess the Independence of Member State Courts?

Immediately after it was published, the judgment in Case C‑216/18 PPU Minister for Justice and Equality v. LM generated many varied assessments in Poland.  Some commentators treated the judgment as a general vote of no confidence against the Polish judiciary whilst others (including the Minister of Justice) found it to be a defeat of the Irish court. The judgment is used as an argument in current political disputes. Leaving aside, however, the aforementioned determinants, it is to be concluded that because of its approach to certain significant issues, the judgment does not yield to an unequivocal interpretation, and its actual consequences are still hard to anticipate.

28. Juli 2018

Individuals and Judges in Defense of the Rule of Law

In many ways, this case illustrates EU constitutionalism at its best: despite not being obliged to do so, the Irish judge made a request under Article 267 TFEU, bringing together concerns raised by the pending Article 7 TEU procedure and the more technical and narrow issue of fair trial under Article 47 EU Charter. While the ECJ follows the path opened in Aranyosi for assessing the ‘real risk of breach’ under Article 47 EU Charter, in interpreting that provision it manages to weave in the wider Article 7 TEU contextual concerns as well, thereby considerably strengthening the constitutional status of the right to a fair trial.

28. Juli 2018

The Deficiencies Judgment: Postponing the Constitutional Moment

Much was at stake in the LM / Deficiencies decision. The Court of Justice was called to strike a complex balance between different interests, a balance that was bound to be controversial. While the ruling was not the defining ‘constitutional moment’, this moment might be only postponed. The Court made it clear that ‘red lines’ already exist in European constitutional law, and that it is willing to operationalize them. Nonetheless, it should not be forgotten that the Court should not replace the ‘political game’ – a game that is clearly on.

27. Juli 2018

We Still Haven’t Found What We’re Looking For

The diagnosis is grim. So, the CJEU should have done something! If the political class is reluctant, the law in the hands of the CJEU must be put to play. The conventional narrative has it that this has always been the case. This was the gist of the hope laid in the anticipated LM case. The CJEU has not lived up to those high expectations. This is not a landmark ruling and neither will its impact be of seismic constitutional proportions. The reason for that is, as we shall see, not the reluctance of the CJEU to address the problem seriously, but a plain fact that the expectations have been simply too high. While this is, most likely, as good as it can judicially get, the LM decision has still not brought us what we have been looking for. Nevertheless, we might be at least an inch closer toward that goal.

27. Juli 2018

A new chapter in Israel’s »constitution«: Israel as the Nation State of the Jewish People

In the very last day of the Knesset’s summer session, on July 19th 2018, the Israeli Knesset passed a new Basic Law stating that Israel is the Nation State of the Jewish people. Supporters of this Basic Law claim that it simply states the obvious: Israel was established as a refuge and a homeland for the Jewish people. Still, the Basic Law is very problematic. Not because of what is included within it, but mainly for what is missing from it: the idea of a democratic state and the principle of equality.

27. Juli 2018

A Clever Compromise or a Tectonic Shift? The LM Jugment of the CJEU

The LM judgment is certainly not the end, rather the beginning of a development. Its teaching is not that systemic deficiencies of the judiciary do not matter. Rather, such deficiencies shall be addressed systemically. Such systemic solutions may force the respective member state to adjust without making its participation in the EU abruptly impossible.

27. Juli 2018

Afraid of Their Own Courage? Some Preliminary Reflections on LM

The much-awaited judgment in the case LM (also known as Celmer) is a landmark decision. The European Court of Justice acknowledged for the very first time that the essence of the right to a fair trial prohibits, under certain circumstances, the surrender of individuals from one EU Member State to another. Against the backdrop of the rule of law crisis in Poland and elsewhere, this acknowledgment is certain to be seen as a big step towards strengthening the rule of law in Europe. At the same time, the decision falls short of the expectations of those who wanted the Court of Justice to assess the independence of the Polish judiciary in substance.

26. Juli 2018

Sandu and Others v Russia and Moldova: The High Costs of Occupation

On 17 July 2018, the European Court on Human Rights reminded again that occupation of foreign lands and support of separatist regimes is a costly affair. This cost is not only calculated in terms of monetary repercussions but also in terms of reputational losses. On that day the chamber of the Court delivered a judgment in the case of Sandu and Others v Russia and Moldova. This judgment is a new one in the line of cases dealing with a breakaway region of Moldova – the self-proclaimed Republic of Transnistria.

23. Juli 2018

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