Daily Archives: April 18, 2016


DIVERSITY AND INDEPENDENCE IN THE EUROPEAN COURT OF JUSTICE

15 Colum. J. Eur. L. 89 (2008 – 2009) Iyiola Solanke.Lecturer, Norwich Law School, University of East Anglia. BA (Hon.) (London), MSc, Ph. D, London School of Economics. The European Court of Justice (ECJ) currently comprises twenty seven judges and eight Advocates General who together make law affecting citizens of the European Union over a wide range of social and economic issues, including racial and ethnic equality. However, the ECJ’s composition remains unreflective of the millions of black and migrant European Union citizens whom it serves. As the rulings of the Court reach into the everyday lives of an increasing […]


APPOINTING FOXES TO GUARD HENHOUSES: THE EUROPEAN POSTED WORKERS’ DIRECTIVE

15 Colum. J. Eur. L. 123 (2008 – 2009) Aravind R. Ganesh. LL.B (Hons), King’s College, London, 2008; J.D., Columbia Law School, 2008. This note addresses certain complications inherent in governance with regards to posted workers, i.e. workers posted on a temporary basis from one Member State of the Union to another, for the provision of services in the host Member State. In particular, this note attempts to explain how the current Directive 96/71/EC (the “Posted Workers’ Directive”) sets out mechanisms that produce socially inefficient levels of minimum protections for such posted workers that have to be provided by their […]


CASE C-308/06, INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF INDEPENDENT TANKER OWNERS AND OTHERS: THE REQUIREMENT OF DIRECT EFFECT IN THE JUDICIAL REVIEW OF EU LAW AGAINST INTERNATIONAL LAW

15 Colum. J. Eur. L. 143 (2008 – 2009) Nicolas Hachez. LL.M., NYU School of Law; Research Fellow and Ph.D. Candidate, Institute for International Law and Leuven Centre for Global Governance Studies, University of Leuven. Special thanks to Tim Corthaut for his insightful remarks on an earlier draft of this paper. PRESENTATION OF ECJ CASE NO. C-308/06 OF JUNE 3, 2008 – “INTERTANKO” On July 4, 2006, the High Court of Justice of England and Wales, Queen’s Bench Division (“High Court”), used Article 234 of the EC Treaty to refer for a preliminary ruling to the European Court of Justice […]


THE COUNCIL DECISION OF 12 JUNE 2007 ON THE ESTABLISHMENT, OPERATION AND USE OF THE SECOND GENERATION SCHENGEN INFORMATION SYSTEM (SIS II)

14 Colum. J. Eur. L. 649 (2008) Vasiliki E. Christou. Special Scientist, Athens Law Faculty, Greece. Ph.D. (Heidelberg), LL.M., LL.B. (Athens). The Schengen Information System, otherwise known as SIS, is a large-scale database system created by the Schengen Convention as a compensatory measure following the abolition of controls at internal borders within the Schengen area which includes the majority of European states. The Schengen Convention entered into force in 1985, as an intergovernmental agreement among the States of the Benelux Economic Union, Germany and France. The resulting Schengen acquis was later, on June 1990, integrated into the European Union through […]


CASE C-432/05 UNIBET- SOME PRACTICAL REMARKS ON EFFECTIVE JUDICIAL PROTECTION

14 Colum. J. Eur. L. 621 (2008) Maciej Taborowski, Institute of Legal Studies, Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences, Warsaw, Poland. The author is grateful to Tim Corthaut (K.U. Leuven) for his inspiring remarks on an earlier version of this contribution and to Lukasz Abramowicz (University of Pennsylvania) for the linguistic overhaul. I owe special thanks to Zuzanna Szmelter. All errors and omissions remain the sole responsibility of the author. In 1981, when Ronald Reagan became the President of the USA, Prince Charles married Lady Di, and Greece was about to join the Community, the ECJ handed down its judgment […]


SUPPRESSING DISSENT: THE PIVOTAL ROLE OF THE PROSECUTOR IN CRIMINAL DEFAMATION PROCEEDINGS IN COUNTRIES SUBJECT TO THE EUROPEAN COURT OF HUMAN RIGHTS

14 Colum. J. Eur. L. 597 (2008) Dean Chapman, graduated with a J.D. from Columbia Law School in May 2008 as a Stone Scholar and will be an Associate at Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld in New York beginning in September 2008. Special thanks to Richard Winfield, Lecturer-in-Law of Comparative Mass Media, for his assistance with this paper. Though widely criticized for suppressing freedom of expression, criminal defamation and libel laws are still on the books in many European states. Prosecutions may be brought privately by the individual affected or publicly by the government. This paper focuses on the […]


COMPARATIVE CAUSE AND EFFECT: CONSUMER INSOLVENCY AND THE ERODING SOCIAL SAFETY NET

14 Colum. J. Eur. L. 563 (2008) Jason J. Kilborn, The John Marshall Law School (Chicago). This paper explores the connection between social welfare reform and the adoption of consumer debt relief law in Europe. Health care expenses and unemployment are significant contributors to overindebtedness in Europe, and outside the primary sources, one finds suggestions to the effect that the unraveling social safety net was a major contributing factor in the adoption of consumer debt relief laws in Europe in the 1990s. This paper critically analyzes this notion by tracking the recent scaling back of social assistance programs in Sweden, […]


THE TWO EUROPES OF HUMAN RIGHTS: THE EMERGING DIVISION OF TASKS BETWEEN THE COUNCIL OF EUROPE AND THE EUROPEAN UNION IN PROMOTING HUMAN RIGHTS IN EUROPE

14 Colum. J. Eur. L. 509 (2008) Olivier De Schutter, Professor at the Catholic University of Louvain (UCL) and at the College of Europe (Natolin), and a Member of the Global Law School Faculty at New York University. He is a visiting professor at Columbia University (2007 08). This article addresses the division of tasks between the Council of Europe and the European Union in the protection of fundamental rights in Europe. As part of its project to establish an area of freedom, security, and justice, the EU has recently sought to develop a more proactive fundamental rights policy. However, […]


A “SWITCH IN TIME” FOR THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITY? LOCHNER DISCOURSE AND THE RECALIBRATION OF ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL RIGHTS IN EUROPE

14 Colum. J. Eur. L. 467 (2008) Ian H. Eliasoph, Attorney, U.S. Department of Labor. B.A., Loyola College of Maryland (2000); J.D., University of California, Berkeley (2003); LL.M., Cambridge (U.K.) (2007). The views expressed are entirely my own and in no way represent those of the U.S. Department of Labor. This Article undertakes a comparative analysis of debates related to the legacies of the Lochner era in the United States with contemporary debates in Europe. It demonstrates that in the 1980s and   early  1990s the governance of the European Community (“EC) began to assume characteristics reminiscent of Lochner era governance, […]


THE TREATY OF LISBON AND ITS IMPACT ON THE EUROPEAN UNION’S DEMOCRATIC DEFICIT

14 Colum. J. Eur. L. 445 (2008) Stephen C. Sieberson, Ph.D. in European Law, Erasmus University Rotterdam; J.D., University of Iowa; member of the faculty, Creighton University School of Law. Editor’s Note: In volume 10 of this journal the editors published an extensive article by the author, entitled “The Proposed European Union  Constitution-Will It Eliminate the EU’s Democratic Deficit? “‘ That article analyzed the first draft of the European Union’s Constitution against a wide array of scholarly comment on the EU’s so-called “democratic deficit. ” When the Union abandoned the Constitution in 2007, the editors invited Professor Sieberson to follow […]


LEGISLATIVE, JUDICIAL, SOFT LAW, AND COOPERATIVE APPROACHES TO HARMONIZING CORPORATE INCOME TAXES IN THE US AND THE EU

14 Colum. J. Eur. L. 377 (2008) Charles E. McLure Jr., While Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Tax Analysis in 1983 85, the author chaired the staff-level Task Force that supported the Worldwide Unitary Taxation Working Group appointed by Treasury Secretary Donald Regan at the request of President Ronald Reagan. A preliminary version of this paper was presented at a conference on “National Fiscal Sovereignty: Integration and Decentralization,” held in Ravenna, Italy on October 13-14, 2006. The Member States of the European Community have systems of taxing corporate income that are more appropriate for nations than for members […]


ON THE USE AND ABUSE OF DIGNITY IN CONSTITUTIONAL LAW

14 Colum. J. Eur. L. 201 (2008) Neomi Rao. Assistant Professor of Law, George Mason University School of Law. Human dignity has developed into a core value of modern constitutionalism.  In the United States, the Supreme Court has referred to human dignity only sporadically, but several justices and a number of scholars have advocated using the concept of human dignity to modernize American constitutional law and to keep in step with the international community. I argue in this Article that acceptance of the modern, largely European conception of human dignity would weaken American constitutional protections for individual rights. Human dignity […]


REASON-GIVING IN COURT PRACTICE: DECISION-MAKERS AT THE CROSSROADS

14 Colum. J. Eur. L. 257 (2008) Mathilde Cohen. Ph.D. candidate, Paris-X University and J.S.D. candidate, Columbia Law School. B.A., M.A., Philosophy, Sorbonne (Paris I). LL.B., Sorbonne (Paris I). LL.M., Columbia Law School. This Article examines the thesis according to which the practice of giving reasons for decisions is a central element of liberal democracies.  In this view, public institutions’ practice—and sometimes duty—of reason-giving is required so that each individual may view the state as reasonable and therefore, according to deliberative democratic theory, legitimate. Does the giving of reasons in actual court practice achieve these goals?  Drawing on empirical research […]


TRENDS, DEVELOPMENTS, AND MUTUAL INFLUENCES BETWEEN UNITED STATES CORPORATE LAW(S) AND EUROPEAN COMMUNITY COMPANY LAW(S)

14 Colum. J. Eur. L. 277 (2008) Krešimir Piršl. S.J.D. (Duke University School of Law), LL.M. (Duke University School of Law), LL.M. (University of Zagreb School of Law), J.D. (University of Rijeka School of Law). This manuscript resulted from research undertaken at Duke University School of Law (Visiting Scholar, 2006-2007) and Georgetown University Law Center (Visiting Researcher, 2004-2006). The article examines trends in, and developments of, selected issues and legal concepts that have developed in United States corporate law and European Community company law. The aim is to reveal the general direction of corporate or company law by surveying the […]


CASE C-112/05, EUROPEAN COMMISSION V. FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF GERMANY: THE VOLKSWAGEN CASE AND ART. 56 EC – A PROPER RESULT, YET ALSO A MISSED OPPORTUNITY?

14 Colum. J. Eur. L. 359 (2008) Florian Sander. Associate, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Hamburg, Germany; LL.M., Harvard Law School, 2005; Dr. Jur. (Ph.D.), University of Hamburg, 2003. As expected, on October 23rd, 2007, the ECJ ruled that the so-called VW-Gesetz (“Volkswagen Law”) – a statute designing Volkswagen AG’s corporate laws in a manner that deviates from the general German corporate laws – constitutes an infringement of the freedom of capital movements (Art. 56 EC). Following General Advocate Ruiz-Jarabo Colomer’s February 2007 opinion stipulating that the ECJ should reject the VW-Gesetz,# the ECJ has articulated what most observers considered the most […]


THE FIRST STAGE OF THE ABOLITION OF THE EXEQUATUR IN THE EUROPEAN UNION

14 Colum. J. Eur. L. 371 (2008) Gilles Cuniberti. Associate Professor of Law, Paris Val-de-Marne University, France; J.D., Ph.D (Law), Panthéon-Sorbonne University; LL.M., Yale. On October 15 and 16, 1999, the European Council met in Tampere, Finland, and approved the principle of mutual recognition of judicial decisions and judgments.  In its conclusions,# the European Council insisted that the principle should become the “cornerstone of judicial cooperation in both civil and criminal matters within the Union.”  In civil matters, which will be the exclusive focus of this note, the European Council specifically made clear that the “intermediate measures which are still […]


TWILIGHT OF THE IDOLS? EU INTERNET PRIVACY AND THE POST ENLIGHTENMENT PARADIGM

14 Colum. J. Eur. L. 1 (2007 – 2008) Mark F. Kightlinger, Assistant Professor, University of Kentucky College of Law; Partner, Covington & Burling 1999- 2004; J.D., Yale Law School, 1988; Ph.D., Yale University, 1991; B.A./M.A., Cambridge University, 1983/1995; B.A., Williams College, 1981. This Article provides a timely examination of the European Union’s approach to information privacy on the internet, an approach that some legal scholars have held up as a model for law reform in the United States. Building on the author’s recent piece discussing the U.S. approach to internet privacy, this Article applies to the EU’s internet privacy […]


DOUBLE TAXATION: A EUROPEAN “SWITCH IN TIME?”

14 Colum. J. Eur. L. 63 (2007 – 2008) Georg W. Kofler, Acting Assistant Professor of Tax Law, New York University School of Law. Ruth Mason, Associate Professor of Law and Nancy & Bill Trachsel Corporate Law Scholar, University of Connecticut School of Law. This article considers whether the fundamental freedoms of the EC Treaty encompass an absolute requirement for the Member States to mitigate juridical double taxation, and it concludes that such a requirement could reasonably be inferred from the goals of the fundamental freedoms and the European Court of Justice’s “double burden” jurisprudence. Notwithstanding the reasonableness of that […]


NATIONAL IDENTITY AND IMMIGRATION POLICY IN THE U.S. AND THE EUROPEAN UNION

14 Colum. J. Eur. L. 99 (2007 – 2008) Lauren Gilbert, Associate Professor of Law, St. Thomas University School of Law; J.D., University of Michigan Law School, 1988; B.A., Harvard University, 1983. This article contrasts the efforts currently underway in the European Union to develop a harmonized system for admitting and integrating immigrants with the repeated failure of immigration reform in the U.S. and the absence of a policy for immigrant integration. After examining recent obstacles to immigration reform in the U.S., Part II discusses different integration models and experiences in the U.S. and the European Union. Part III then […]


THE EC COMMISSION’S NEW ADOPTED BABY: HEALTH CARE

14 Colum. J. Eur. L. 145 (2007 – 2008) Clemens Rieder, PhD Candidate and Teaching Assistant, University of Reading. This article looks into the emerging field of health care rights in the EU. The developments in this area seem to have come to a turning point. The EU Commission now wants to consolidate the case law of the European Court of Justice that has had a major impact upon this field of law. In order to provide a contribution to this discussion, this article highlights the shortcomings in the Court’s case law and the aspects which have to be addressed […]