The EUI European Union Law Working Group and the Constitutionalism and Politics Working Group invite you to a joint event, featuring a presentation by visiting PhD Researcher Charlotte Langenfeld (Humboldt University Berlin).
Abstract
For decades, the main focus of the ‘autonomy of EU law/ the EU legal order’ in the ECJ’s jurisprudence has been the relationship between EU law and public international law (so-called ‘external dimension’: examples include the Kadi-decisions, the failed accession to the ECHR and the case law on intra-EU-dispute settlement following the Achmea-judgement). The recent rule of law-crisis has however incited a whole new cascade of judgements operating with the autonomy of EU law in relationship to the member states, centred around the obligations flowing from Art. 19 (I) TEU with regards to the national judiciary.
In this presentation, I will examine the usage and role of autonomy in the cases on the rule of law. Based on that, I will explore how this body of case law fits into my overarching narrative of autonomy being a systemic or meta-principle of EU constitutional law, rather than a substantive one and how autonomy is used by the ECJ to flag and to communicate ‘red lines’.
I am hoping for a lively discussion on this topic, but also on methodological questions on how to analyse (ECJ) case law: how to deal with the risk of anachronisms and the (inevitable) inconsistencies in the case law, how to contextualise jurisprudence – how can we ascertain the relevance of context –, how to find a narrative to guide the reader through the case law etc.
Participants are invited to take a look at the following cases that will be discussed during the event, with a particular focus on the concept of autonomy: Case C-619/18, 24.06.2018 ; Joined Cases C-558/18 and C-563/18, 26.03.2020; Case C-824/18, 02.03.2021.