Développées par la Cour de Justice, les invocabilités des directives européennes définissent les conditions permettant aux personnes juridiques de se prévaloir d'une directive dans leurs rapports juridiques. La Cour de Justice a réussi à introduire ces invocabilités dans les ordres juridiques nationaux, notamment en Italie et en France, en s'appuyant, d'une part, sur des éléments déjà existants dans les ordres juridiques des États membres, tels que la technique de l'interprétation conforme et le principe de la responsabilité de la puissance publique, en les faisant évoluer dans le sens européen. D'autre part, la Cour a aussi créé des outils nouveaux et, finalement, révolutionnaires, tels que les invocabilités de substitution et d'exclusion de la norme nationale incompatible avec une directive européenne. La mise en oeuvre de ces invocabilités a eu des répercussions importantes sur le rôle des juridictions nationales, qui ont vu l'ensemble de leurs missions s'étendre. La sphère juridique des particuliers a également été influencée, de façon imprévisible et, parfois, préjudiciable. / Developed by the European Court of Justice, the invocability of EU directives defines the conditions allowing legal subjects to exercise the rights conferred by a directive in their legal relationships. The ECJ has managed to introduce different types of invocability into the member States national legal orders, and notably in Italy and France, by, on the one hand using some pre-existing elements of the national legal orders, such as consistent interpretation and the principle of State liability, and making them evolve in a European way. And, on the other hand the ECJ has also created new and, finally, revolutionary tools, such as invocability of substitution and invocability of exclusion of the national law incompatible with a EU directive. The implementation of these different types of invocability has had a deep impact on the role of national courts, who have seen their mandate extended. The legal sphere of legal subjects had also been influenced, in unpredictable and sometimes detrimental ways.

La distinction du fait et du droit est une problématique centrale dansl’organisation des voies de droit. Elle exerce en effet, au-delà d’une variété de formes et designifications, une influence décisive sur l’office du juge ainsi que sur la fonction desautorités soumises à son contrôle. Pour appréhender pleinement la portée qu’elle revêt dansl’équilibre des pouvoirs établi par la Cour de justice de l’Union européenne, il est nécessairede se défaire de toute préconception de la distinction du fait et du droit (notamment auregard des pratiques observées en droit interne), afin de comprendre comment le juge del’Union européenne exerce un pouvoir de détermination à son égard, que ce soit dans lecontrôle de validité des actes juridiques ou dans les voies de recours dirigées contre desactes juridictionnels. Dans cette opération, elle reste toutefois soucieuse d’assurerl’acceptabilité de ses décisions, et prend donc en considération certaines contraintesjuridiques qui se présentent à elle dans son office. Autorité normatrice et ordonnatrice, laCour de justice en tant qu’interprète authentique utilise en réalité la distinction du fait et dudroit comme un instrument de répartition des compétences entre les différents acteursconcernés par la réalisation du droit de l’Union européenne. Elle définit ainsi, à travers ladétermination de la distinction du fait et du droit dans chacune de ses manifestations,l’habilitation que leur confère le système juridique. En ce sens, elle apparaît comme lajuridiction suprême de cet espace normatif. / The distinction between fact and law is central to the organization of remedies.It exerts, through its variety of forms and meanings, a decisive influence on the Court and onthe function of the authorities that the former reviews. In order to fully grasp its significance inthe balance of power that the European Court of Justice has established, one has to discardany preconception related to the distinction between fact and law (especially those present inmunicipal law). This in turn leads to the understanding of the manner in which the EuropeanCourt specifies the distinction, should it concern the review against legal acts or the ways ofchallenging case law. Whilst doing this, the European Court remains wary of the acceptabilityof its decisions, thus taking into account several legal constraints. As a normative authorityand as the authentic interpreter, the European Court of Justice uses the distinction betweenfact and law as a way to divide the competences of the actors concerned with theimplementation of EU law. By performing this specification, it defines the way the legalsystem entitles these actors. In this way, the European Court of Justice emerges as theSupreme Court of this normative space.

<p>Sveriges inträde i EU 1995 har lett till många förändringar i det svenska rättssystemet. Svenska domstolar har därmed fått en ny arbetssituation och nya skyldigheter. Flera förändringar har skett i svensk processrätt, och grundläggande EU-rättsliga principer som de om direkt effekt och EU-rättens företräde framför nationell rätt, har ställt de nationella domstolarna inför flera utmaningar.</p><p>Den mest grundläggande skyldigheten de svenska domstolarna har gentemot EU är förpliktelsen att inhämta förhandsavgörande från EU-domstolen. Sistainstansrätterna är skyldiga att göra detta närhelst de är osäkra på tolkningen och/eller tillämpningen av en EU-rättslig bestämmelse. Detta är en långtgående förpliktelse som endast har två undantag: det första är i de fall EU-domstolen redan dömt i ett identiskt fall (acte éclairé); det andra är då den nationella domstolen anser att den EU-rättsliga bestämmelsen är tillräckligt klar och tydligt för att den självständigt ska kunna tillämpa den (acte clair).</p><p>Dessa skyldigheter har lett till ett flertal problem för de svenska domstolarna. Sverige har fått skarp kritik från Kommissionen för sistainstansrätternas obenägenhet att inhämta förhandsavgörande.</p><p>Huruvida EU borde ta hårdare tag mot medlemsstaternas nationella domstolar eller om kriterierna för när skyldigheten att inhämta förhandsavgörande borde mjukas upp diskuteras flitigt i nuläget. Det finns företeelser som talar för en utveckling åt både det ena och det andra hållet, vilket gör detta till ett väldigt spännande ämne att studera.</p> / <p>Since Sweden joined EU in 1995 many things has changed in the Swedish legal order. This has led to several new obligations for the Swedish courts. There have been a number of changes in Swedish law of procedure, and fundamental principles of law set down by EU, like the principle of direct effect of EU law and its precedence over national law, has presented many challenges before the national courts.</p><p>The most fundamental obligation of the Swedish courts to EU is the duty to make a reference for a preliminary ruling to the European Court of Justice (ECJ). The courts of last instance are obligated to do this in any case where they are insecure of the appropriate application of EU-law. There are only two exceptions to this rule, namely when the ECJ already has ruled in an identical matter (acte éclairé) and in cases where the national court feels that the correct interpretation of the rule of law in question is obvious (acte clair).</p><p>These obligations have lead to a number of problems for the Swedish courts. The Commission has criticized Sweden because of the national courts of last instance unwillingness to request preliminary rulings.</p><p>Whether EU should toughen up and take action against the national courts disobedience or if the criteria for when an obligation to make a reference for a preliminary ruling should get more flexible is constantly discussed at this time. There are several things that speaks for both of these developments and that makes this a very interesting topic to study.</p>

SANTRAUKA Šiame darbe analizuojama Europos Teisingumo Teismo ir Lietuvos teismų praktika, siekiant identifikuoti prekių ženklų tapatumo ir panašumo nustatymui reikšmingus kriterijus, šių kriterijų taikymo sąlygas bei įtaką vertinant bendrą prekių ženklų įspūdį, taip pat atkreipiamas dėmesys į teorinius ir praktinius probleminius prekių ženklų tapatumo ir panašumo nustatymo klausimus ir siūlomi jų sprendimai. Pirmojoje dalyje labai koncentruotai nurodomas su prekių ženklų tapatumu ir panašumu susijęs teisinis reglamentavimas. Antrojoje dalyje atskleidžiama prekių ženklų tapatumo sąvoka bei prekių ženklų tapatumo vertinimas buvusio Pirmosios Instancijos Teismo, dabartinio Bendrojo Teismo ir ETT praktikoje, taip pat, siekiant tapatumo klausimą išnagrinėti visapusiškai, pasiremiant pavyzdžiais ir iš Vidaus rinkos harmonizavimo tarnybos praktikos. Trečioji darbo dalis skirta aptarti prekių ženklų panašumą bei išnagrinėti jam nustatyti reikšmingus kriterijus. Šioje dalyje Bendrijos ir Lietuvos teismų sprendimų analizė atlikta pagal bendriausius prekių ženklų panašumo nustatymo kriterijus: skiriamuosius ir dominuojančius elementus, vaizdinį, fonetinį bei konceptualų lyginimą. Darbo pabaigoje atskirai aptariama netradicinių prekių ženklų panašumo nustatymo specifika. / SUMMARY Establishment of Identity and Similarity of Trade Marks in the Case Law of the European Court of Justice and Lithuanian Courts This master thesis is dedicated to analyze case law of the European Court of Justice and Lithuanian courts, with the aim to identify criteria significant for establishment of identity and similarity of trade marks, conditions for application of those criteria as well as influence upon evaluation of the general impression created by trade marks. In addition, attention is drawn to theoretical and practical problem issues in establishment of identity and similarity of trade marks and suggestions on their solution are made. In the first part, a list of condensed references is made to laws pertinent to the identity and similarity of trade marks. The second part reveals the concept of identity of trade marks and judgment of identity of trade marks in the case law of the former Court of First Instance, currently the General Court, and the European Court of Justice, supplemented by additional illustrations from the practice of the OHIM, in attempt of painting the full picture of the identity issue. The third part of the thesis focuses on the discussion of the similarity of trade marks and analysis of criteria for establishment of similarity of trade marks. Herein the analysis of case law of the European Court of Justice and Lithuanian courts has been carried out based on general criteria of similarity of trade marks: distinguishing and dominating... [to full text]

L’internationalisation du droit communautaire de l’UE a engendré le développement de nouveaux centres de production juridique en dehors de l’espace juridique européen comme la CAN. Ce processus a stimulé un phénomène de pluralisme juridique mondial à double dimension : on note d’une part la création , à l’échelle régionale, de modèles alternatifs d’intégration ; d’autre part, au niveau national, l’émergence d’une discussion sur l’identité constitutionnelle et administrative des Etats au regard des systèmes juridiques supranationaux. La comparaison jurisprudentielle entre la CJUE et le TJCA montre une expansion du pluralisme juridique en Amérique latine et dans l’Union européenne, tant à l’échelle nationale que régionale ; constitutionnelle qu’administrative. Un tel pluralisme appelle la construction d’une jurisprudence de coordination-harmonisation régionale plutôt qu’une standardisation juridique mondiale telle qu’elle est envisagée par le droit économique de l’OMC, la doctrine du Global Administrative Law ou celle proposant des standards constitutionnels mondiaux. La jurisprudence comparée explique comment le dialogue –«spontané et débridé»- de juges nationaux et régionaux révèle les rapports conflictuels entre le droit économique du marché mondial (OMC) et la protection de l’ordre public à l’échelle régionale. La thèse aborde cette problématique du pluralisme juridique au prisme de la jurisprudence comparée de la CJUE et du TJCA. D’un point de vue constitutionnel tout d’abord, la notion de « savoir-pouvoir du juge » (se substituant à la notion d’activisme des juges) propose de comprendre le juge communautaire en tant que garant du pluralisme juridique national afin d’aborder une nouvelle configuration complexe du pouvoir juridique à l’échelle supranationale. D’un point de vue administratif ensuite, la notion de gouvernabilité régionale (se substituant à la notion de gouvernance mondiale) appelle à un espace d’étatisation juridique des pouvoirs économiques régionaux pour les placer sous le contrôle du droit. Il s’agit d’imaginer un droit public régional capable d’étatiser les pouvoirs régionaux en tant que contre-pouvoirs de régulation du marché face à l’indéfinition juridique de la gouvernance mondiale. / The internationalization of Community Law in the EU has led to the development of new centers of legal production outside the European legal space such as CAN. This process has stimulated a two -dimensional global phenomenon of legal pluralism: on the one hand there is the creation of alternative regional integration models and on the other hand, the emergence of a discussion on national level about the constitutional and administrative identity of States under supranational legal systems. The comparison between different jurisprudences shows an expansion of legal pluralism in Latin America and in the EU, as much as in a national or regional scale than in a constitutional or administrative scale. Such pluralism demands the construction of a regional coordination-harmonization rather than a standardization of the legal world as envisaged by the WTO's economic Law, the doctrine of Global Administrative Law or the constitutional providing of global standards. Comparative jurisprudence explains how the national and regional judges’ “spontaneous and unrestrained” dialogue reveals the conflicting relationship between the beneficial owner of the world market (WTO) and the protection of public order at a regional level. The thesis addresses the problem of pluralism through the comparative analysis of both the ECJ's and the ACJ's jurisprudences. First, from a constitutional point of view, the notion of “power-knowledge of the judge” (replacing the concept of judicial activism) suggests the understanding of the community judge as the protector of the national legal pluralism to address a new complex configuration of legal authority at a supranational level. Secondly, from an administrative point of view, the notion of regional governability (replacing the concept of global governance) demands the judicial nationalization of regional economic powers to place it under the control of law. The aim is to imagine the regional public law capable of nationalizing the regional authorities as counter-powers regulating the market to face the lack of legal definition of the global governance.

In economic and legal practice situations often occur when infringement of rights or neglect of duty can{\crq}t be sanctioned by common means of procedural law. The most typical example of this is when the debtor has liabilities towards a number of creditors and it isn{\crq}t within his power to fulfill them all. Such a situation is usually described as bankruptcy and it is solved in accordance with the Bankruptcy Act. Bankruptcy is considered to be the last resort of settlement of unfavourable financial and economic relations between the creditor and the debtor and it leads to the settlement of their property relations. The purpose and the aim of this procedure is to settle the liabilities towards the aggrieved parties, so that all creditors of one debtor which is in bankruptcy get as equal and just satisfaction as possible. Liquidation or reorganization of multinational companies which are in bankruptcy causes a whole range of legal complications. The expansion of multinational companies and also the considerable number of great bankruptcies with international effects has triggered a debate about the need of creating a system which would involve solving such situations in transnational context.

The Court of Justice of the European Union has in its case law been strict in its approach towards Member States’ legislative measures providing for retention of and access to data relating to electronic communications. In recent case law the Court has made clear that also such provisions with the object of safeguarding national security need to comply with EU law and the Court’s jurisprudence. This might mean that the Swedish cable-based signals intelligence is within the scope of EU law contrary to the previous conception. It is decisive for whether the Swedish signals intelligence is within the scope of EU law whether the requirement on the providers of electronic communications systems to transfer all signals crossing the Swedish border to collaboration points, in order for the signals intelligence to be carried out, is to be interpreted as a requirement on the providers to process personal data. If within the scope of EU law, a great majority of the Swedish signals intelligence could be disproportionate in the light of the Court’s case law and thus contrary to EU law. Since the signals intelligence is considered to be an indispensable tool to solve all tasks the Swedish foreign intelligence encompasses this could affect the capability of the foreign intelligence.

La tesi ha per oggetto l’autotutela amministrativa, specialmente quella c.d. decisoria “spontanea”, ovvero quell’insieme di poteri che consentono all’amministrazione di riesaminare i propri provvedimenti e di rimuoverli a vario titolo.
Di questi poteri si è indagato il fondamento dogmatico e positivo. La questione del fondamento è stata per lunghi anni affrontata dalla dottrina e dalla giurisprudenza in termini totalmente pre-critici e non problematici: l’esistenza di questi poteri era semplicemente scontata e le riflessioni sulla loro base giuridica si esaurivano perlopiù nella constatazione della loro necessità nell’immemore consenso circa la loro ammissibilità. Negli ultimi anni, invece, una parte degli Autori ha disconosciuto la natura implicita e per così dire “originaria” di questi poteri e ne ha perciò patrocinato la stretta riconduzione al principio di legalità: in altre parole, l’annullamento e la revoca non sarebbero affatto conseguenza della c.d. inesauribilità del potere amministrativo – negata da questa dottrina – e sarebbero perciò oggi ammissibili unicamente nei casi e nei modi disciplinati dalle due norme introdotte nella legge sul procedimento nel 2005. Ciò a garanzia della certezza dei rapporti giuridici e del legittimo affidamento dei destinatari dei provvedimenti ampliativi. Secondo un filone ricostruttivo in pare contrastante con il primo, altri Autori hanno inteso valorizzare gli elementi de iure condito a favore della obbligatorietà dell’avvio del procedimento di riesame, auspicandone contemporaneamente la generalizzazione, nell’ottica di una più complessiva trasformazione dell’annullamento d’ufficio in un nuovo istituto ibrido, rispondente alla funzione di alternative dispute risolution system o, se si vuole, di ricorso gerarchico. Per le stesse ragioni, l’istituto dovrebbe perdere il carattere ampiamente discrezionale, in favore di una vincolatezza totale o parziale. Questo secondo “fronte di attacco” alla ricostruzione tradizionale intende offrire soluzione al venir meno del sistema dei controlli di legalità sull’azione amministrativa. Lo studio ha sottoposto a verifica entrambi i filoni evolutivi richiamati, discostandosi dal secondo e, pur accogliendo parte delle argomentazioni ad esso sottostanti, anche dal primo. Quanto alla teoria dell’esauribilità del potere amministrativo, oggetto della prima linea evolutiva, si è ritenuto di condividere le considerazioni circa la tutela dell’affidamento degli interessati e della stabilità dei rapporti giuridici. È parsa tuttavia meglio rispondente alle categorie generali e alle esigenze del sistema (anche sulla base di una visione del diritto amministrativo quale “diritto dei terzi”, per natura volto alla tutela dell’interesse generale e non solo dell’interesse privato particolare coinvolto dall’esercizio del potere) la conservazione della tradizionale inesauribilità del potere, seppur assai mitigata, nella pratica, con riferimento all’esercizio dei poteri di ritiro degli atti favorevoli ai privati il cui affidamento sia concretamente meritevole di tutela. La natura discrezionale dell’annullamento d’ufficio (e della revoca), sottoposta a critica dalla seconda linea evolutiva, viene difesa sia sul piano del diritto positivo e pretorio (attraverso la riconduzione dei principali casi di annullamento c.d. doveroso al modello generale), sia sul piano delle categorie generali, a partire dalla natura dei poteri coinvolti e dall’analisi delle posizioni giuridiche dei soggetti interessati dai procedimenti di secondo grado. / The thesis focuses on the Italian system of so called autoprotection or selfprotection. This expression refers to the powers of public administration to revoke its own acts when deemed necessary to repair a vice of legitimacy or a vice of opportunity, without being bind to resort to the courts. Given the aim of this powers – the same of first grade powers plus a semi-judicial one – they are usually meant by judges and scholars as “widely discretionary”. Furthermore, it has always been believed that the choice to activate the correspondent proceeding is totally free for public administration; consequently, a demand of interested parties does not make binding the start of the procedure, opposite to what happens with administrative appeal proceedings. In recent years ECJ, ECHR and national case law has emboldened the limits to selfredress, making clear that legitimate expectations and the public interest to legal certainty must be taken into consideration and given sufficient protection. Lately, also the Legislator followed, making the annulment and the revocation harder to be put in effect when the first act is favorable to the addressed subject. In such cases, the revocation cannot be ordered for a mere reconsideration of already known circumstances (ius poenitendi) but only if new ones show up. At the same time, ex officio annulment is precluded after 18 months from the issuing of the first act, instead of the previous general limit of a “reasonable time”. On the other hand, the case law has apparently pointed out some hypothesis of mandatory annulment, such as for “anticomunitarian acts” and cost-producing acts. Based on these two orientation, some scholars suggested a global rethinking of the self-protection, its bases and its rules. The study analyzes the case law and the latest legislative reforms, proving that no mandatory annulment exists in the Italian legal system. Therefore, nor the ECJ principle of equivalence nor other principles require that selfredress become generally obliged. The thesis also aims to prove that selfprotection remains a discretionary power, in order to ensure that the contrasting needs (the rule of law on the one hand, and the legal certainty and legitimate expectation on the other hand) can be properly balanced in every decision, according to the Constitutional provision of article 97, which requires that both impartiality and good administration are pursued.

After accession to the European Union, tax issues acquired and are still acquiring an entirely new character. A new legal environment is forming both in the Czech Republic and in the European Union. Until now, only indirect taxes have been harmonised, with direct taxes having remained in the domain of each member state. However, we are now feeling pressure to harmonise this area as well. Cases concerning value added tax belong to those that are now most often being resolved in front of the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg. Cases regarding direct taxes are also becoming increasingly important. Will direct taxes be harmonized to the same extent as indirect taxes have? When potential investor is considering his investment into a company, he needs to match comparable figures. Definitely, one of the most important criterions is the amount of profit after taxation followed by payout of dividends. If there are different ways of taxation of corporations in various EU Member States, then there would be no possibility to compare corporations placed in various EU Member States objectively. Therefore, the aim of this thesis is, based on the research in the whole EU regarding taxation of corporations, to suggest a method how to harmonize taxation of corporations, which now prevents companies from trading in a single EU market, and also to minimize corporation’s costs of fulfilment of tax administration requirements of each Member State. This aim has been achieved through the following partial aims: .. An analysis of taxation of corporations in each of all 27 EU Member States, .. An analysis of proposals of the European Commission regarding harmonisation of taxation of companies, .. Suggestion of own method of harmonization of taxation of corporations in the EU. In conclusion, there are emphasized the contributions of this thesis to the science, to the practice and to education.