Judicial authority and the constitutional treaty

International Journal of Constitutional Law

Volumn 3, Issue 2-3, 2005, Pages 448-472

  Chalmers, Damian ^a  

^a LONDON SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS   (United Kingdom)

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EID: 33746352789     PISSN: 14742640     EISSN: 14742659     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1093/icon/moi028     Document Type: Article

References (183)

1. On December 5-6, 2002 the Praesidium established a discussion circle to examine the Court of Justice. Final Report of the Discussion Circle on the Court of Justice, CONV 636/03. The Praesidium adopted most of the amendments proposed, CONV 734/03.
2. Most famously, Cooper v. Aaron, 358 U.S. 1, 78 S. Ct. 1041 (1958).
3. Further analysis can be found in Angus Johnston, Judicial Reform and the Treaty of Nice, 38 Common Mkt. L. Rev. 499 (2001)
4. Piet Eeckhout, The European Courts After Nice in Legal Issues of the Nice Treaty (Mads Andenas & John Usher eds., Hart 2002).
5. Case C-26/62 Van Gend en Loos v. NederlandsAdministratie der Belastingen, 1963 E.C.R. 1
6. Case C-6/64 Costa v. ENEL, 1964 E.C.R. 585.
7. See Arts. 235 & 288 EC (EC institutions)
8. Art. 228(2) E.C. (Member States).
9. See Arts. 231, 242 & 243 EC (EC Institutions). With regard to Member States, Court judgments are authoritative statements of EC law, which all organs of the State are required to apply. Case C-198/01 Fiammiferi v. Autorità Garante della Concorrenza e del Mercato, Judgment of Sept. 9, 2003.
10. See Art. 233 EC (EC Institutions)
11. Art. 228(1) EC (Member States).
12. Case C-106/77 Amminstrazione delle Finanze v. Simmenthal, 1978 E.C.R. 629.
13. Case C-416/96 El Yassini v. Secretary of State for the Home Department, 1999 E.C.R. I-1209.
14. A limited period was chosen, as practice can vary longitudinally.
15. This figure includes employment cases but not other forms of contractual dispute.
16. Case T-7/99, Medici Grimm v. Council, 2000 E.C.R. II- 2671
17. Case T-58/99, Mukand et al. v. Council, 2001 E.C.R. II-2521
18. Case T88/98, Kundan Industries et al v. Council, 2002 E.C.R. II-4897
19. Case C-76/OOP, Petrotub v. Council, 2003 E.C.R. I-79.
20. Case C-29/99, Commission v. Council, 2002 E.C.R. I-11221
21. Case C-281/01, Commission v. Council, 2002 E.C.R. I-12049
22. Case C-378/00, Commission v. Parliament and Council, 2003 E.C.R. I-937.
23. Case C-22/96, Parliament v. Council, 1998 E.C.R. I-3321
24. Joined Cases C-164/97 & C-165/97, Parliament v. Council, 1999 E.C.R. I-1139
25. Case C-93/00 Parliament v. Council, 2001 E.C.R. I-10119.
26. Case C-29/99, Commission v. Council, 2002 E.C.R. I-11221.
27. Case C-61/96, Spain v. Council, 2002 E.C.R. I-3439.
28. Case C-376/98, Germany v. Parliament & Council, 2000 E.C.R. I-8419 ("tobacco directive" case).
29. These were the other forty-four cases brought before the Court.
30. Judicial Statistics 2002 20 (Department of Constitutional Affairs, 2003) [hereinafter Judicial Statistics].
31. E.C. Commission, XXth Report on Monitoring the Application of Community Law COM (2003) 669, Annex 1, 14-16 [hereinafter XXth Report].
32. Art. 228 E.C.
33. XXth Report, supra note 19, at Annex I, Table 1.2.
34. Id. at 8.
35. Id. Annex I, Table 1.1.
36. Annual Report of the Court of Justice 2003 221 (2004).
37. Statistics of Judicial Activity of the Court of Justice 9 (2002). Available at http://www.curia.eu.int/en/instit/presentationfr/index.htm.
38. See XXth Report, supra note 19, at Annex V.
39. The dispute concerning the siting of the Kouroupitos waste dump in Crete is a case in point. The original Commission proceedings were brought in 1989. The case was not terminated until 2001, and involved 2 Court rulings. Case C-45/91, Commission v. Greece, 1992 E.C.R. I-2509
40. Case C-387/97 Commission v. Greece, 2000 E.C.R. I-5047.
41. See XXth Report, supra note 19, at Annex V.
42. See XXth Report, supra note 19, at Annex A, 9-11.
43. Commission v. Greece 2000, supra note 27, at 5045
44. Case C-278/0, Commission v. Spain, Judgment of Nov. 25, 2003.
45. Case C-304/02, Commission v. France (pending).
46. Covert evasions can include: Narrow constructions of EC legal norms; arguing that EC law does not apply to the facts; weak remedies; refusals to refer; a contrario reasoning and opting to apply domestic rather than EC legal norms on the grounds that it would lead to the same result. See Bedanna Bepuly, The Application of EC Law in Austria, IWE Working Paper No 39, available at http://www.iwe.oeaw.ac.at.
47. The broadest study is The European Courts and National Courts: Doctrine and Jurisprudence (Anne Marie Slaughter, Alec Stone Sweet & Joseph Weiler, eds., Hart, 1998).
48. Damian Chalmers, The Positioning of EU Judicial Politics within the United Kingdom, 23 West European Politics 169, 182 (2000).
49. Bedanna Bapuly & Gerhard Kohlegger, Die Implementierung des EG-Rechts in Österreich 27 (2003).
50. Francisco Ramos, Judicial Cooperation in the European Courts: Testing Three Models of Judicial Behaviour, 2 Global Jurist Frontiers 43-44 (2002).
51. See Chalmers, supra note 34, at 178-183.
52. The data was extracted from the published CURIA reports of the ECJ for that period. It excludes judgments on the Brussels Convention and cases where the Court found it had no jurisdiction and refused to give a ruling. The data is on file with the author and is available on request. The categories are: Economic freedom (191 cases); competition, including public undertakings and state aids (36 cases); sex discrimination (43 cases); VAT (74 cases); trademarks (28 cases); other, denoting all other sectors (161 cases); agriculture (92 cases); commercial policy and customs union (47 cases); environment (23 cases); public procurement (PP)(33 cases); and labor law, other than sex discrimination (28 cases).
53. The author merely looked at treaty provisions, except for free movement of workers, where Article 39 EC has been difficult to dissociate from the secondary legislation listed below.
54. Council Directive 77/388/EEC, 1977 O.J. (L 145/1).
55. E.g., the most recent decision on VAT concerns whether revenue from gaming machines can be exempt from VAT if they are not operated in a casino, Joined Cases C-453/02 & C-462/02, Gladbeck v. Linneweber, Judgment of Feb. 17, 2005.
56. The most recent reference to agriculture revolved around whether E.U. customs law discriminated between barley intended for production of beer in beechwood tanks and barley intended for beer using other production methods, Case C-126/04, Heineken Brøuwerijen v. Hoofproduktschap Akkerbouw, Judgment of Jan. 13, 2005.
57. The question of whether advertising restrictions fall within Article 28 EC, the provision on free movement of goods, is a case in point. Since 1993, when it was ruled fairly conclusive that they do not, Case C-292/ 92, Hünermund, 1993 E.C.R. I-6787, there have been five more cases exclusively on this point, whose cumulative result is a finding that they may do so, depending on the restrictiveness of the measure.
58. Case C-412/93, Leclerc-Siplec [1995] E.C.R. I-179
59. Joined Cases C-34/95 to C-36/95, De Agostini and TV-Shop, 1997 E.C.R. I-3843
60. Case C-405/98, Gourmet International Products, 2001 E.C.R. I-1795
61. Case C-322/01, Deutsche Apothekerband v. 0800 Doc Morris, Judgment of Dec. 11, 2003
62. Case C-71/02, Karner v. Troostwijk, Judgment of Mar. 25, 2004.
63. The following provisions of the EC Treaty were invoked as economic freedoms: Arts. 25, 28-30, 39, 43, 45, 46, 48, 49, 50, 55, 56, 58, 90 EC. In addition, arts. 17-18 EC are invoked as interpretative aids. The following provisions were invoked in the field of competition, arts. 81, 82, 86 & 87 EC. Article 141 EC, the equal pay provision, was invoked in the field of sex discrimination.
64. Council Directive 77/388, 1977 O.J. (L 145/1) (VAT)
65. Council Directive 76/207, 1976 O.J. (L 39/40) (Sex discrimination)
66. Council Directive 89/104, 1989 O.J. (L 40/1) (Trade marks)
67. Council Directive 89/665, 1989 O.J. (L 395/33)
68. and Council Directive 93/36, 1993 O.J. (L 199/1) (Public Procurement)
69. Council Directive 64/22, 1964 O.J. Sp. Ed. (L 850/64) 117
70. and Council Directive 68/360, 1968 O.J. Sp Ed. (L 257/13) 485. (Free movement of workers).
71. Regulation 1612/68, 1968 O.J. Sp.Ed. (L 275/2) 475
72. Regulation 1251/70, 1970 O.J. Sp. Ed. (L 142/24) 402
73. Regulation 1408/71, 1997 O.J. (L 28/1) (Free movement of workers).
74. Brunner v. European Union Treaty, 1 C.M.L.R. 57 (1994).
75. CA, Feb. 3, 1994, Ecole Européenne, Case No 12/94, B6.
76. Carlsen v. Rasmussen, [1999] 3 C.M.L.R. 854 (1999).
77. R v. MAFF ex parte First City Trading, 1 C.M.L.R. 250 (1997)
78. Marks & Spencer v. CCE [1999] 1 C.M.L.R. 1152 (1999).
79. See Judgment 30 invalidating Article 62 of the 1994 Europe Agreement between Hungary and the European Union, Judgment of June 25, 1998.
80. See also János Volkai, The Application of the Europe Agreement and European Law in Hungary: The Judgment of an Activist Constitutional Court on Activist Notions, Harvard Jean Monnet Working Paper 8/99, available at http://www.jeanmonnetprogram.org/papers/papers99.html.
81. Oral presentation by Gil Carlos Rodriguez Iglesias to the "discussion circle" on the Court of Justice, CONV 572/03, 1-2.
82. Art. 220 E.C.
83. Constitutional Treaty (C.T.), Art. I-29.
84. These include human dignity, which was successfully invoked in Case C-36/ 02, Omega Spielhallen, Judgment of Oct. 14, 2004, and the right of the patient to prior informed consent before the performance of any medical procedure, Case C-377/98, Netherlands v. Parliament & Council, 2001 E.C.R. I-7079.
85. Case C-101/01 Lindqvist, Judgment of Nov. 6, 2003
86. Joined Cases C-465/00, C-138/01 and C-139/01, Österreichisches Rundfunk, 2003 E.C.R. I-4919.
87. Case C-117/0, KB v. National Health Service Pensions Agency, Judgment of Jan. 7, 2004.
88. Case C-377/98, Netherlands v. Parliament & Council, 2001 E.C.R. I-7079.
89. Art. 230(4) EC.
90. Case C-486/01P, Front National v. Parliament, Judgment of June 29, 2004.
91. Case C-50/00P, Unión de Pequeños Agricultores v. Council, 2002 E.C.R. I-6677.
92. C.T. at art. I-33 (1).
93. C.T. at art. III-365(4).
94. C.T. at art. III-362(3).
95. C.T. at art. III-362(2).
96. E.C. at Article 68(1).
97. Art. 35(1)-(4) TEU. Austria, Belgium, Germany, Luxembourg and the Netherlands have granted all their courts the power of reference. Greece has accepted jurisdiction for courts of last resort, 1997 O.J., C 340/ 308.
98. The Commission, Council or a member state may seek a reference on any legal question relating to Title IV (or measures adopted under it) of the EC Treaty, Article 68(3) EC. With regard to third pillar measures, national governments may bring any dispute to the Court over the interpretation or application of an act that has not been resolved within 6 months by the Council, Article 35 (7) TEU.
99. The Court is still prohibited from reviewing the proportionality or validity of actions of police or law enforcement agencies, or of member states policies in the area of law and order and protection of internal security, Article III-377 CT. Despite this caveat, there is nothing to prevent the ECJ from making a ruling on which a national court could base such a review.
100. The central instruments on asylum are: Directive 2003/9/EC, laying down minimum standards for the reception of asylum seekers, 2003 O.J. (L 31/ 60) EU Council, amended proposal for a directive on minimum standards for the granting of refugee status, 14203/04 (agreement has been reached on this).
101. On immigration, important instruments are Council Directive 2001/40/EC, 2001 O.J. (L 149/34) on the mutual recognition of expulsion orders of third country nationals
102. Council Directive 2002/90/EC, 2002 O.J. (L 328/17) defining the facilitation of unauthorized entry and residence
103. Council Directive 2003/86/EC, 2003 O.J. (L251/12) on family reunification
104. Council Directive 2003/109/EC, 2004 O.J. (L 16/44) concerning the status of third country nationals who are long term residents.
105. E.g., decision 96/750/JHA on combating serious illicit drug trafficking, 1996 O.J. (L 342/6)
106. Joint Action 98/733/JHA, 1998 O.J. (L 351/1) on making it a criminal offence to participate in a criminal organization
107. Framework Decision 2001/413/JHA, 2001 O.J. (L 149/1) combating fraud and counterfeiting
108. Framework Decision 2001/500/JHA, 2001O.J. (L 182/1) on money laundering
109. decision 2002/475/JHA, 2002 O.J. (L 164/3) on combating terrorism
110. decision 2002/629/JHA, 2002 O.J. (L 203/1) on combating trafficking in human beings
111. Framework Decision 2003/80/JHA, 2003 O.J. (L 29/55) on protection of the environment through the criminal law.
112. See also the Commission proposal for a framework decision criminalizing racism and xenophobia, 2002 O.J. C 75/17.
113. Home Office, First Quarterly Statistics 2004 Table 5 (2004).
114. Judicial Statistics 2002, supra note 18, at 77.
115. Id. at 65.
116. Id. at Table 7.9.
117. Id. at 77.
118. Id. at 86.
119. Id. at 77 & 86.
120. C.T. at art. III-369(4).
121. Case C-294/83, Parti Ecologiste 'Les Verts' v. Parliament, 1986 E.C.R. 1339. Parallel reasoning has been applied to national measures that fall within the field of EC law.
122. Case C-222/84, Johnston v. RUC, 1986 E.C.R. 1651.
123. Matthew Adler & Michael Dorf, Constitutional Existence Conditions and Judicial Review, 80 Va. L. Rev. 1105, 1117-1136 (2003).
124. Case C-22/70, Commission v. Council, 1971 E.C.R. 263
125. Case C-190/84, Les Verts, 1988 E.C.R. 1017.
126. Opinion 1/9, 1991 E.C.R. I-6079.
127. Larry Alexander & Frederick Schauer, On Extrajudicial Constitutional Interpretation, 110 Harv. L. Rev. 1359 (1997).
128. Case C-314/85, Firma Fotofrost v. Hauptzollamt Lübeck-Ost, 1987 E.C.R. 4199.
129. Case C-166/73, Rheinmühlen-Düsseldorf v. Einfuhr- und Vorratstelle, 1974 E.C.R. 33.
130. Joined Cases C-297/88 & C-197/89, Dzodzi v. Belgium, 1990 E.C.R. I-3763.
131. See Rheinmühlen-Düsseldorf, supra note 85.
132. Frank Michelman, Living with Judicial Supremacy, 38 Wake Forest L. Rev. 579, 583 (2003).
133. Dieter Grimm, Constitutional Adjudication and Democracy in Liber Amicorum Lord Slynn of Hadley Volume II: Judicial Review in International Perspective (Mads Andenas ed., Kluwer, 2000).
134. Case C-70/88, Parliament v. Council, 1990 E.C.R. I-2041.
135. See Michael Dorf & Charles Sabel, Drug Treatment Courts and Emergent Experimentalism Government, 53 VAND. L. REV. 831 (2000)
136. Judith Kaye, Delivering Justice Today: A Problem Solving Approach, 22 YALE L. & POL'Y REV. 125 (2004)
137. Russell Pearce, Redressing Inequality in the Market for Justice: Why Access to Lawyers will Never Solve the Problem and Why Rethinking the Role of Judges Will Help, 73 FORDHAM L. REV. 969 (2004).
138. Michael Dorf, Legal Indeterminacy and Institutional Reason, 78 N.Y.U.L. Rev. 875 (2003).
139. See Case T-211/00, Kujer v. Council, 2002 E.C.R. II-485.
140. See Advocate General Poiares Maduro in Case C-327/02 Panayatova v. Minister voor Vreemdelingenzaken en Integratie, Opinion of Feb. 19. 2004.
141. Opinion 1/91, 1991E.C.R.I-6079.
142. Case C-314/85, Firma Fotofrost v. Hauptzollamt Lübeck-Ost, 1987 E.C.R. 4199.
143. Court of First Instance, Reflections on the Future Development of the Community Judicial System 16 Eur L. Rev. 175 (1991).
144. See also Report of the Court of Justice on certain aspects of the application of the Treaty on European Union (1995) [hereinafter Court of Justice Report]
145. See also Report of the Court of First Instance on certain aspects of the application of the Treaty on European Union (1995) [hereinafter Court of First Instance Report]
146. The Future of the Judicial System of the European Union (1999).
147. Court of Justice Report, supra note 97, at point 11.
148. The Future of the Judicial System of the European Union, supra note 97, at 28.
149. Judicial Statistics 2002, supra note 18, at Table 1.4.
150. See Décisions du Conseil constitutionnel de l'année 2003. Available at http://www.conseil-constitutionnel.fr/tableau/tab03.htm
151. See Recenti depositi delle pronunce, Corte costituzionale della Repubblica Italiana. Available at http://www.cortecostituzionale.it/ita/ attivitacorte/novita/novitaold.asp
152. Supra notes 33-35 and accompanying text.
153. Council Directive 77/187/EEC, 1977 O.J. (L 61/26).
154. Chalmers, supra note 34 and infra notes 180 & 198.
155. This figure excludes orders and interlocutory measures. See Annual Report of the Court of Justice 2003 217 & 240 (2004).
156. The case law on the regulation of gambling and Article 49 EC has changed with every judgment. But see Case C-243/01, Gambelli, Judgment of Nov. 23, 2003.
157. What constitutes discriminatory internal taxation for the purposes of Article 90 EC?
158. The recent case of Case C-9/02, de Lasterie, Judgment of Mar. 11, 2004 is widely seen as having destroyed Member States' capacity to levy corporate taxation, as it renders almost all controls on tax avoidance through transfer of fiscal residence incompatible with Article 43 E.C.
159. Case C-245/0, RTL v. Niedersächsische Landesmedienanstalt für privaten Rundfunk, Judgment of Oct. 23, 2003.
160. Statistics of the Judicial Activity of the Court of Justice 2003, at 6, available at http://www.curia.eu.int/en/instit/presentationfr/index.htm.
161. Case C-94/00, Roquette v. Commission, 2002 E.C.R. I-9011.
162. Joined Cases T-377/00, T-379/00, T-380/00, T-260/01 and T-272/01, Phillip Morris et al v. Commission, 2003 E.C.R. II-1.
163. The Open Method of Coordination is a policy process established at the Lisbon European Council in March 2000. Structured around an intergovernmental system of benchmarking and peer review, it operates outside the formal treaty structures. See generally E.U. Bulletin 3-2000, 1.7. For more on the Open Method of Cooperation see Gráinne de Búrca, The Constitutional Challenge of New Governance in the European Union (2003) 28 Eur. L. Rev. 814 (2003).
164. Opinion 2/94, 1996 E.C.R. I-1759.
165. Case C-260/89, ERT v. DEP, 1991 E.C.R. I-2925.
166. There is, thus, not one instance of an EC Directive, the purest form of legislative instrument, having been found to violate a fundamental right.
167. Both courts have developed them. They include the right to be heard in one's own defense before any measure is imposed, Case 17/74 Transocean Marine Paint [1974] ECR 1063
168. the right to legal assistance and the right to confidentiality of all lawyer-client communications prepared for purposes of defence, Case 155/ 79, AM & S, 1982 E.C.R. 1575
169. the right to diligent and impartial investigation, Case T-54/99, Max Mobil, 2002 E.C.R. II-313
170. the right of access to one's file, T-42/96, Eyckeler & Malt, 1998 E.C.R. II-401
171. and the right to protection from self-incrimination, Joined Cases 374/87 & 27/88, Orkem SA & Solvay, 1989 E.C.R. 3283.
172. The two biggest challenges to Commission fines on cartels in 2004 both hinged on breaches of the rights of defense, Case T-44/00, Mannesmannröhren-Werke v. Commission, Judgment of July 8, 2004
173. Case T-48/00 Corus UK v. Commission, Judgment of July 8, 2004
174. Case T50/00 Dalmine v. Commission, Judgment July 8, 2004
175. Joined Cases T-67/00, T-68/00, T-71/00 and T-78/00 JFE Engineering v. Commission, Judgment of July 8, 2004
176. Joined Cases T-236/01, T-239/01, T-244/01 to T-246/01, T-251/01 and T-252/01 Tokay et al. v. Commission, Judgment of Apr. 29, 2004.
177. C.T. at art. II-113.
178. Case C-109/01 Akrich v. Home Office, Judgment of Sept. 23, 2003
179. Case C-245/01 RTL v. Niedersächsische Landesmedienanstalt für privaten Rundfunk, Judgment of Oct. 23, 2003
180. Case C-117/01 KB v. National Health Service Pensions Agency, Judgment of Jan. 7, 2004
181. Case C-71/02 Karner v. Troostwijk, Judgment of Mar. 25, 2004.
182. Between 1994-1998 this accounted for 66.35% of all references from the United Kingdom. See Damian Chalmers, The Much Ado About Judicial Politics, Jean Monnet Working Paper No 1/2000, at 34.
183. The reaction to the extension of Article 28 EC to cover restrictions on Sunday trading is most notable. Richard Rawlings, The Eurolaw Game: Some Deductions from a Saga, 20 J. Of L. & SOC'Y 309 (1993).