STATE LIABILITY FOR JUDICIAL ACTS IN EUROPEAN COMMUNITY LAW: THE CONCEPTUAL WEAKNESSES OF THE FUNCTIONAL APPROACH


11 Colum. J. Eur. L. 605 (2005)

Pablo Martín Rodríguez. Ph.D in Law, Assistant Professor. University of Granada, Spain.

Community Law seems to have defined State and Community Institutions Liability from a functional approach. Actually, it can be stated that the trend toward the progressive unification of the various existing regulations has become crystallized, since the Köbler judgment applied it to State judicial acts. Nevertheless, the author is of the opinion that the system created by the Court of Justice has several inadequacies: a) there is no real State responsibility/liability approach, although it is said to be “inherent in the system of the Treaty;” b) its implementation through national remedies is unable to guarantee the proper fulfilment of its functions; c) the system lacks a clear legal nature despite appearing to be objective; d) it is claimed that the regime has been unified, but this has not actually been achieved; and e) this system has not managed to determine accurately when a last resort national judge commits a sufficiently serious breach. For these reasons, the author considers that the liability system is still unfinished.