This article will attempt to demonstrate the interrelationship between two ‘crises’ that the European Union is facing: the so-called ‘migration’ or ‘refugee crisis’ and the crisis of the principle of the rule of law. In particular, the two crises find their point of connection in the responses to migratory flows put in place by the EU and some of its Member States. The increasing migratory pressure

This paper discusses the strengths and weaknesses of the rule of law conditionality contained in the Proposal for a Regulation on the protection of the Union’s budget in case of generalised deficiencies as regards the rule of law in the Member States. The proposed Regulation establishes a link between a Member State’s violation of the rule of law and the suspension of EU payments. The text examines

The paper discusses the concept of ‘environmental justice’ in the European Union, approaching it from the perspective of the centre-periphery gap in the EU, that is, the divide between the Member States from Western and Northern Europe on the one hand and Central and Eastern Europe on the other. It identifies distributive, procedural and corrective injustices that make the EU periphery, albeit less

The article critically examines the EU’s conceptualisation of the rule of law in its enlargement practice. Two main arguments will be advanced. First, it will be argued that legality is a core element of the rule of law, and adherence to it is a fundamental characteristic of any institutional order governed by the rule of law, as evidenced in the Treaty (Article 2 TEU) and as acknowledged in the jurisprudence

Due to the fact that matrimonial property and inheritance issues are closely intertwined, in some situations the determination of rules which should be applicable to particular relationships seems problematic. This fully applies to marriage contracts which cover both types of issues. The presence of a cross-border element in such contracts raises the question of the delineation of the legal regimes

The use of Article 7 TEU against Poland and Hungary has been generally welcomed with relief, proving that, at last, the EU is ready to defend Article 2 TEU values when Member States openly violate them. However, it is not clear yet what the main value that is claimed to be breached − the rule of law − amounts to in the EU. Actually, the resort to Article 7 TEU crowns a process of equipping the EU with

In 2003 the Commission on European Contract Law (hereinafter: CECL) published the Principles of European Contract Law Part III (hereinafter: PECL III) which contained the provisions on EU set-off (hereinafter: EU model law of set-off). These are soft law provisions whose text was the result of the work of the most prominent academics from EU Member States. Considering that the Germanic, Romanic, and

The right to healthcare is a socio-economic right. It is positive in the sense that governments need to provide resources and set the priorities for individuals to be able to exercise it. The provision of healthcare within complex political entities such as the European Union (EU) and Canada is divided between different actors, namely the federal government and provinces in the case of Canada, and

Following criticism of the current system of posted work in the European Union, the Revised Posted Workers Directive 2018/957 was adopted in June 2018. This paper examines the extent to which the Revised Directive is likely to achieve the stated objective, as put forward by the Member States that criticised the current system and as explained in the Commission’s original proposal, of ensuring ‘equal

Book Review: European Competition Law: A Case Commentary, Edited by Weijer VerLoren van Themaat and Berend Reuder (Elgar Commentaries, Edward Elgar Publishing 2018, ISBN 978-1-78643-546-0), 2nd edition, lxiii+945 pp, index, £225.00 hb.

Over recent years, or even decades, issues such as globalisation, technology, globalised wars, migration, or Brexit have accentuated two phenomena. The fi rst is the distributive effects of law and of globalisation, and the second is the inadequacies in the political processes and outcomes where governments get rightly or wrongly blamed. These two phenomena inspired the theme of the 16th annual Jean

In the present article, judgments of the European Court of Justice, together with the case of Aranyosi and Căldăraru, are put under the academic microscope. The analysis is conducted through the lenses of domestic judges. It starts by drawing a broader picture of the challenges that the domestic judiciary faces when it comes to EU criminal law, in particular the mutual recognition instruments. It argues

This paper covers the problems and dynamics that LGBTQI (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Queer and Intersex) asylum seekers face when they leave their country of origin and enter countries within the European Union. Only a small percentage of people that claim asylum on the basis of reasonable fear of persecution because of sexual orientation are granted asylum within these EU Member States, or some other

The United Kingdom’s decision to leave the EU is causing a strong political, legal and, last but not least, social turmoil. Arguably, the impact is even greater for children who are growing up as part of the Union, and belong to families of mixed nationalities, and/or have cross-border relations to different states and educational systems. The interpretation of the post-Brexit EU law rights of children

A theoretical framework to describe and assess the advancement of innovation ecosystems in the contemporary European Union is more than necessary in order to map actors and processes, and thus provide a more comprehensive and dynamic approach. For actors, the reframed innovation helix perspective is applied, while the multilevel perspective is used for processes. At each innovation progress stage,

Globalisation has not only increased international competition but also led to an increasingly more integrated and evolving legal system. On 23 June 2016, 52 percent of British voters opted to leave the European Union in the hope of ‘regaining their freedom’. The United Kingdom’s decision to leave the European Union has triggered an important political crisis at the same time as raising various questions

New technologies combined with the internet have fundamentally altered our ability to have control over the diffusion of information and its impact on human behaviour. This paper explains this change as well as the transformation of the concept of privacy itself. The main part of the paper analyses the case law relating to local activities such as CCTV cameras in private buildings which serve to protect

Sixty years ago, on 1 January 1958, the Treaty establishing the European Atomic Energy Community of 1957 entered into force. In contrast to the Treaty establishing the European Coal and Steel Community of 1951, the Treaty establishing the European Atomic Energy Community of 1957 did not provide for any explicit limitation of the Community’s existence in its provisions. As a consequence, the key provisions

This article shows that there is a lack of consistency in the interpretation of the meaning and scope of the obligation of traders to provide transparent pre-contractual and contractual information on consumer credit to consumers in EU law. On the basis of an analysis of transparency requirements prescribed by the Unfair Contract Terms Directive and the Consumer Credit Directive, differences in the

The main topic of this paper is the validity of the establishment of an EU agency, the Single Resolution Board, ie whether it was created on a valid legal basis in accordance with the Treaty of Lisbon. More broadly, but also on a smaller scale, the topic of the paper is also whether the creation of an EU agency, such as the SRB, is a prime example of transition from a system of EU vertical federalism

In the Court of Justice’s case law, association agreements have been recognised as forming part of the communitarian legal system since the famous ‘Haegeman’ judgment in 1974. The new-generation association agreements concluded by the EU with its Eastern neighbour states explicitly offer a ‘stake in EU law’ as one of the incentives for neighbour states to adapt to the Union’s normative transfer. Less

Corporate social responsibility is a new form of dialogue between business, society and the state. This article explores the possibilities of legislating for corporate social responsibility in Ukraine in respect of implementing the Association Agreement of 2014 between the European Union and its Member States, of the one part, and Ukraine, of the other part. Different approaches to introducing corporate

I am not an EU lawyer. The days are long gone when I could know a substantial fraction of EU law just by knowing about the free movement of goods. I get a fleeting glimpse of where the EU is going every year at the Jean Monnet Seminar in Dubrovnik, but no more than a glimpse. Still, when the editors invited me to write this Editorial Note, I could not refuse. Looking for inspiration, I read or reread

This paper reflects on the problem of gender balance in economic decision-making, considers its legislative roots, and offers potential guidance for its solution. The paper takes into account the origin of positive action and effective equality in the scope of EU legislation and CJEU case law and tackles the most troublesome issues regarding the new initiative of making equality in boards effective

The paper approaches the problematic related to the role played by the proportionality principle in the case law of the Court of Justice of the European Union, through the lens of the Billerud case. When conducting the proportionality analysis, the Court employs different standards of the examination, depending on the subject matter in question. In this sense, the paper focuses on three distinctive

The UK’s decision to leave the European Union (EU) has presented innumerable challenges for both the leaving state and the EU. In these unchartered waters, the future of UK involvement in EU policies is very much in doubt. The Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) has not been at the forefront of the debates about Brexit, despite the increasing focus on the EU’s global role, and the UK’s own vision

The proposal for a Directive on Copyright in the Digital Market contains a proposal to harmonise protection of copyright in the digital market and to close the so called ‘value gap’. The value gap ...

Through the judgments Digital Rights Ireland and Tele2 Sverige, the CJEU emphasised the power of the CFR (in particular arts 7, 8, 52) through the fundamental right of data protection and general principles of law such as the principle of proportionality and legal certainty. Article 52 CFR represents the essence of justification. In the spirit of article 52(3) and (4) CFR it becomes evident that the

This article uses the recently issued report on civil law rules on robotics by the European Parliament's Committee on Legal Affairs as an anchoring point. After a brief overview of the topic’s socio-economical background, it contains an attempt to define and explain artificial intelligence. By examining the role of autonomous machines in the workforce, it gives an overview of the most pressing questions

The Svalbard Treaty and its claimed ‘extended-reach’ jurisdiction incorporating both the continental shelf and exclusive economic zone (EEZ) – ie a fisheries protection zone (FPZ) – is an international law puzzle. Disputes regarding the Treaty’s jurisdictione ratione terrae results from interpretative differences. My findings are as follows: the Treaty’s concept of ‘full and absolute sovereignty’ refers

This paper examines less discussed aspects of Euroscepticism in Eastern Europe as a component of the institutional history of the 2004 EU enlargement. A focus on public support for European integration allows us to evaluate the consequences of the EU’s enlargement policy from the perspective of democratic legitimacy, as public attitudes demonstrate how institutions live up to the expectations of the

Although the establishment of competition rules forms part of the EU’s exclusive competences, the application and enforcement of those rules has always been shared consistently between the EU and its Member States.The sharing of enforcement powers is conceptualised traditionally as a delegation of the exercise of exclusively conferred competences. The Court of Justice of the European Union’s case law

The paper provides an insight into the institutional system of EU external relations, focusing on the role of the European Parliament. It argues that the current intergovernmental set-up of the CFSP is one of the major reasons for EU international under-performance. Against this background, the paper discusses the potential benefits of the ‘parlimentarisation’ of this policy area, implying deeper Parliamentary

This paper reflects upon the consequences of Brexit for the EU constitutional order. It joins many analyses that followed the referendum by which the UK citizens decided that their country should leave the EU. However, whereas the majority of analyses concentrate on the impact of Brexit on the UK legal order, this paper looks into the possible repercussions for the EU legal order. It divides the consequences

Of all the academic journal articles that I have read in 2016 none has pushed me to think harder about EU law than one which does not mention EU law at all. It is ‘Distinctive Identity Claims in Federal Systems: Judicial Policing of Subnational Variance’ by Antoni Abat i Ninet and James A. Gardner.1 The title, focusing on ‘distinctive identity claims, captures vividly what the article’s main concern

Undocumented migrant women in Europe – many potential refugees – face cumulative forms of discrimination and heightened vulnerability, including the risk of suffering violence. This article explores the implications of viewing their situation through the lens of public international law, particularly international human rights law, as an indispensable companion to European human rights law. It argues

The EC adopted a strategy to unleash the potential of cloud computing, where it marked data protection legislation as one of the main barriers for the development and expansion of cloud computing in Europe. In light of the EC goal to ensure a stimulating environment for the development of cloud computing in the EU, this paper aims to assess the consequences of the new roles and responsibilities of

This paper is concerned with the implications of CJEU internal market case law for the balance of powers between the EU institutions. It argues that the Court’s case law involving the areas of domestic policy reserved by the Treaty predominantly for the competence of the Member States creates an inter-institutional dynamic that restrains the rule-making capacity of the EU legislature. This dynamic

Although Kosovo is in the initial period of its European integration process, this article will analyse the extent to which the 2008 Kosovo Constitution is compatible with EU law. Integration in the European Union is one of the key objectives of Kosovo’s constitutional preamble and the paper will discuss the prospective constitutional amendments that will occur in Kosovo in anticipation of accession

Thin-capitalisation rules are rules applied by a number of countries in order to protect their national tax base from erosion by companies that have a relatively high level of debt compared to equity. Indeed, the tax treatment of dividend distributions and interest payments differs significantly and this in return has an effect on the amount of profit a company reports for tax purposes. Country tax

In 2010, the European Union launched ‘Europe 2020, a strategy for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth’ whose goals in employment, innovation, education, social inclusion and climate/energy need to be reached by 2020. Although such a project has undeniable benefits, the authors of this paper analyse the shortcomings of ‘Europe 2020’ in the field of EU public procurement rules and the latter’s interconnected

The European Court of Human Rights’ margin of appreciation doctrine is of growing importance in general international law. Existing scholarship, however, fails to consider the political stakes involved in its use. The aim of this paper is to offer a reconceptualisation of the margin as a tool of global governance in the context of the increasing judicialisation of human rights protection in Europe