28 July 2021
How Not to Deal with Poland’s Fake Judges’ Requests for a Preliminary Ruling
In his Opinion of 8 July 2021 in Case C-132/20 Getin Noble Bank, AG Bobek advised the Court of Justice to find admissible a national request for a preliminary ruling originating from an individual who was appointed to Poland’s Supreme Court on the back of manifest and grave irregularities. In this specific case, contrary to the position of AG Bobek, we submit that the ECJ must find the request inadmissible as the referring individual cannot be considered a tribunal established by law. Continue reading >>
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11 June 2021
Bringing a Knife to a Gunfight
On 10 June 2021, the European Parliament adopted a Resolution on the Rule of Law situation in the European Union and the application of the Conditionality Regulation. In this Resolution, the European Parliament expresses its concerns about the regression of the democratic situation in several member States and regrets the inaction of other institutions, notably the Council and the Commission. Continue reading >>
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13 December 2020
Compromising the Rule of Law while Compromising on the Rule of Law
Some EU leaders may assert that EU money will now be brought under the rule of law given that the Conditionality Regulation is now guaranteed to pass. But they are wrong. Continue reading >>09 April 2020
From One State of Emergency to Another – Emergency Powers in France
2 years and less than 5 months after the end of the two-year state of emergency triggered on the wake of the 2015 terrorist attacks in Paris, a brand new “state of health emergency” was activated in France on the 23rd March to cope with a new attack led, this time, by a small and invisible enemy, Covid-19. The so-called “state of health emergency” currently constitutes the legal framework and basis of the measures in force to cope with the epidemic, including nationwide lockdown. What is this new regime? Is it a threat to individual freedoms? What are its limits and guarantees? Was it legally necessary? Continue reading >>
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17 January 2020
French Law is NOT a Model for the Polish Bill on Disciplining Judges
We, French legal academics and experts in French Law, reject the instrumentalization of French Law by the Polish Government Continue reading >>18 December 2019
Brexit and the CJEU: why the Opinion of the Court Should be Sought as a Matter of Emergency
With the comfortable majority he managed to secure in the Commons, Boris Johnson is now very likely to be able to push through the British Parliament the withdrawal agreement he negotiated with the European Union back in October. Provided that the European Parliament greenlights it quickly enough, it may well come into force by 31 January 2020, deadline of the last extension decision agreed between the EU-27 and the UK. However, one actor of the process seems to have been forgotten: the Court of Justice of the European Union. This could end up being a huge mistake. Continue reading >>08 December 2019
The European Parliament Sidelined
When the Council adopted the first set of procedural rules governing Article 7(1) TEU hearings in July 2019, it unilaterally decided to make the Commission the proxy for the Parliament. This post will show how the Council’s differential treatment of the Commission and the Parliament as activating bodies under Article 7(1) is not compatible with EU primary law and goes against in particular the principle of institutional balance. Continue reading >>
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29 May 2019
How to Address Rule of Law Backsliding in Romania
In this post, we will first summarise the situation in Romania before examining Frans Timmermans’ reaction to the latest evidence of rule of law backsliding there. This post concludes with a possible solution considering the diagnosis offered below: an infringement action based on Article 325 TFEU. Continue reading >>24 May 2019
#DeniedMyVote too: Brits in France, the European Elections and the Council of State
European Elections Day in the United Kingdom has been stained by revelations that many EU citizens were unable to vote due to various clerical errors, widely reported on Twitter with the hashtag #DeniedMyVote. It seems that something along the same lines, though on a smaller scale, happened to UK citizens residing in other Member States of the European Union, for example in France. Continue reading >>
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29 August 2018