<p>ABSTRACT</p><p>University: Växjö University, school of social science, department of political science</p><p>Level: Bachelor’s thesis in political science</p><p>Title: SHIFTING BALANCE OF POWER? – an analyze of the new EU-treaty’s consequences for the EC-court.</p><p>Academic adviser: Associate professor Stefan Höjelid</p><p>Author: Magnus Nordahl</p><p>This study focuses on the increased role of the European Court of Justice through the establishment of a Constitution for Europe and its impact on the balance of power, both horizontal and vertical.</p><p>To do this, the study takes its aims from the research problem, formulated as follows:</p><p>Does the establishment of a constitution for Europe contribute to an increased role for the European Court of Justice and does it create a more legible horizontal and vertical division of power?</p><p>To reach the relevant analyses and conclusions two precise questions are presented as well as an analytical model. The precise questions are:</p><p>• Which are the relevant contributions for the balance of power from a perspective of juridification in the new EU-treaty?</p><p>• What impacts do those contributions have on the so called ‘European federalism’?</p><p>The theoretical perspective of this study is rooted in the concept of federalism with special emphasizes on constitution and sovereignty as well as a part about the process of juridification. Along with the presented analytical model consisting of a horizontal and vertical division of power, the empirical material is presented with focus on the new EU-treaty about a constitution for Europe and the European Court of Justice. By doing this, analyses are made about the changing power of the ECJ and the new EU-treaty from a perspective of division of power, federalism and juridification. Through the establishment of the EU-treaty about the creation of a constitution the ECJ receive a clearer platform to act upon which contributes to a more legible division of power, both horizontal and vertical. This due to the fact that the new EU-treaty will take place as the highest law within the EU, something that the ECJ have the right to interpret. The whole process is also a broader recognition of the process of juridification where judicial power increases on the cost of politics.</p><p>Keywords: Constitution, Division of power, EU, ECJ, Federalism, Juridification, and Sovereignty.</p>

Human rights, European Union and Constitutional Discourse Abstract This thesis deals with human rights within the case law of the ECJ. Purpose of this thesis is to denominate and analyze situations of application of human rights in ECJ's case law, especially from the point of view of critique of rights. For such purpose the thesis is divided into six main sections. First section delimits the foundation of (i) liberal theory of human rights, which gives foundations to the contemporary mainstream human rights discourse and (ii) basic notions of ciritique of rights. The first chapter thus create conditions for understanding of arguments developed in the following sections of this thesis. The second sections briefly describes evolution of case law of the ECJ in the field of human rights protection, particularly landmark decisions of the ECJ, in which it afforded protection to human rights as general principles of the Community law. The third section follows the second section and tries to analyze the human rights case law of the ECJ from the point of view of their recognition as general principles of the Community law. This thesis reflects the self-evident nature of human rights within the Community law and argues that despite the self evident presuppositions of human rights the has been quite selective when...

The judicial system of Poland is at the forefront of public, constitutional, political and legal debates of the European Union. Different aspects of rule of law in Poland, such as independence of judges, their right to irremovability, the alleged intention of the government to occupy and impact Polish judicial sector are discussed among academics. The aim of this research conducted throughout the thesis is to add complete and all-inclusive analysis of the recent judgment of European Court of Justice (hereinafter: "ECJ") regarding lowering retirement age of judges to the ongoing academic literature. Furthermore, before reaching that conclusion, providing the reader with the review of Polish political debate, the responses of European Union institutions and analysis of the necessity of the reform for Polish judicial system. Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)

Yes / The European Court of Justice has played a pivotal role in the transformation of international law obligations between Member States into an integrated legal order with direct applicability and effect in those Member States. This article explores whether or not the ECJ continues to be relevant to EU governance and integration and whether it continues to transform the legal orders of the member states. It briefly outlines the early case law which transformed the legal order and the preliminary reference procedure as an important element of that transformation and then considers the extent to which the ECJ continues to act in ways which are transformational even though the legal order itself has remained relatively static. The EU citizenship jurisprudence serves as a useful example of how integration is driven forward by the Court. This paper argues that the Court’s decisions do continue to have significant impact on areas of law and policy and EU governance generally. It illustrates this argument using gender equality law and the Human Rights as pertinent examples and concludes that the ECJ remains relevant in governance terms as it continues to drive forward EU integration in many areas and influence the development of law and policy across the member states.

The thesis is devoted to the most relevant cases of European Court of Justice in the field of direct taxation and their influence on national tax policies. Different member states are willing to implement the law of European Union at different levels. The thesis evaluate the impact of ECJ cases on national tax systems of France and The Netherlands. It has several parts. First part describes historical milestones in coordination of direct taxation, second part describes the ECJ and its function and structure. Follows the analysis of most important cases. Last part evaluate the impact of cases on French and Dutch tax system.

This paper comparatively compares compliance to the rulings of the United States Supreme Court and the ECJ by the state/member state courts. Besides comparing the compliance to the two courts judgements, the paper also tries to establish how to increase compliance with these rulings in the future. This is done because compliance is an important aspect of a functioning judicial system, and a comparison might reveal solutions from one side that could be utilized on the other. The main resources used in this book are: articles, books, webpages and statistics on the subject. The main focus lies on the legal approach, but as a comparative study, elements of political science have been used as well. The results of the comparison show that although statistical compliance is quite high, the actual compliance might be lower due to lack of knowledge or political divisions. Increasing the actual compliance is then a good strategy to be sure that lower courts follow the rulings correctly. The conclusion of this paper is that political and policy divisions in a country, or between an organization and its members results in non- compliance. Reducing this kind of friction will help increase compliance to decisions, not only statistically but also in practice, as the lower courts will feel more comfortable with the rulings. An increase of knowledge of the subject, and the development of efficient judicial mechanisms in a state will also help assure correct interpretation of the rulings.

This thesis describes the system of submitting observations envisaged in Article 23 of the Protocol on the Statute of the European Court of Justice. The thesis seeks to illustrate and criticize the utilization of the system enshrined in Article 23 by the member states of the European Union. The experience of the United Kingdom is analyzed by examining the preliminary ruling judgments that the government of the United Kingdom has submitted observations in order to describe the system and demonstrate its application by a member state of the European Union.

The paper aims to embrace the establishment, development of rules and functioning of the freedom of movement of goods on the internal market of the EU and the impact which the European Court of Justice (ECJ) case law had in this domain and still has today. It opens with the description of the internal market and the freedom of movement of goods, the role of the internal market for the European integration, the development of this freedom in the context of the internal market development and basic characteristics of the freedom of movement of goods. Thereafter, the focus shifts to the legal rules of the internal market and freedom of movement of goods, to the CJEU as one of the main European institutions, its role, competences, composition and the different types of proceedings in front of this Court as well as the changes brought by the Lisbon Treaty. The final part is devoted to the analysis of the chosen ECJ decisions that are considered to be the most significant for the free movement of goods. The paper provides comprehensive overview of the topic implying that the ECJ case law played an important role in the domain of free movement of goods and significantly influenced its functioning.

The goal of my diploma thesis is to describe the influence of ECJ decision making on the common commercial policy ("CCP") of EU. Specifically my thesis examines what factors influence ECJ decision making about direct effect of trade agreements implementing CCP. These factors are applied on several treaties, where the court has not yet decided on their potential direct effect and on a present case at ECJ on direct effect of WTO treaties. With regard to the goal of my thesis an important part of my thesis deals with the development of ECJ decision making. Methods applied in my thesis are analysis and comparison of selected judgements that influence the CCP of EU. After proper analysis I found out that the main motiv behind ECJ decision making is that, if the negotiating position of EU is to be deteriorated, the ECJ is likely to find that the treaty does not have direct effect. Other factors are of secondary character. Examining the influence of decision making of ECJ on direct effect of trade agreements is important, because the role of ECJ influences the legal certainty of subjects about direct applicability of international trade treaties.

The Southern African Development Community (SADC) is a regional economic community established by Treaty in 1992 and comprising fifteen southern African countries. The Tribunal, SADC’s judicial organ, is situated in Windhoek, Namibia and became operational in 2005. The Tribunal enjoys a wide mandate to hear and determine disputes between states, states and SADC, and between natural and legal persons and states or SADC. It is mandated to develop its own jurisprudence having regard to applicable treaties, general rules and principles of public international law, and principles and rules of law of member states. Being new in the field, the Tribunal has not as yet developed a significant jurisprudence although it has delivered a number of judgments some of which are referred to in the study. The Tribunal is expected to develop its own jurisprudence having regard to the jurisprudence developed by other international courts involved in the judicial settlement of disputes. The study offers a comparative review and analysis of the jurisprudence of two selected courts: the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and the Court of Justice of the European Union (ECJ). The focus is on four selected areas considered crucial to the functioning of the Tribunal and the selected courts. The study discusses the parties with access to the Tribunal and compares this with access to the ICJ and ECJ. The jurisdiction of the Tribunal is contrasted with that of the two selected courts. The sources of law available to the Tribunal are discussed and contrasted to those of the two courts. Lastly, the enforcement of law in SADC is contrasted to what applies in relation to the selected courts. In each selected area, similarities and differences between the Tribunal and the two courts are noted and critically evaluated. Further, rules and principles developed by the two selected courts are explored in depth with a view to identifying those which could be of use to the Tribunal. Recommendations are made on rules and principles which could be of use to the Tribunal and on possible improvements to the SADC treaty regime. / Constitutional, International and Indigenous Law / LL.D.