by Leila Medina* INTRODUCTION Compared to the estimated age of our planet, which is 4.54 billion years, the anniversary of the Columbia Journal of European Law that we celebrate today may seem infinitely small. However, 30 years is the average time it takes for most trees to reach full maturity. I am therefore delighted to join you in celebrating this significant milestone, confident in the knowledge that the Columbia Journal of European Law has been nurturing the seeds for many passionate individuals in EU Law to grow with confidence and achieve their own maturity. Therefore, in my speech today, both […]
Katja van der Wal
24 posts
by Pascal McDougall* ABSTRACT During the past fifteen years, many EU member states have been subject to “runs” whereby investors massively sell a country’s financial assets and trigger interest rate spikes that make the country’s debt explode. The European Central Bank (ECB) and the other EU institutions have done little to counter these debt crisis dynamics and, when they have helped indebted states, they have imposed gigantic fiscal contraction as a condition for aid. Unemployment has skyrocketed and left deep scars in the EU’s periphery. Defenders of the EU institutions’ crisis management have used arguments that are thoroughly legalized. They […]
by Federico Fabbrini* ABSTRACT The article compares the protection of human rights during the pandemic in the European Union (EU) and the United States (U.S.) by analyzing judicial review of Covid-19 measures. In particular, the article searched all available Covid-19-related rulings delivered between the start of the pandemic and 30 June 2023 by state and federal supreme courts in the U.S., and top national and supranational courts in the EU and developed an original dataset of over 300 cases. This provides the first-ever systematic analysis of judicial review of pandemic measures by apex courts in consolidated constitutional democracies. The article […]
by Antonio Aloisi* ABSTRACT The green and digital transitions are increasingly described as the “twin transition” in EU policy documents, social partners’ strategic plans and academic debates. However, the exact meaning of this term remains ambiguous, and the interconnections between these transitions are largely unexplored. This paper aims to clarify the motivations and pitfalls behind their “twinning” and assess where and how their convergence might be successful. It considers the socioeconomic risks, policy trade-offs and implications for the future of work. The analysis covers major EU employment and social policy developments concerning workers’ environmental and digital rights, as enshrined in […]
by Kayla Mathurin* & Stefanie Haller** ABSTRACT In an era marked by deepening geopolitical tensions, growing economic nationalism, and divergent regulatory paths, the transatlantic relationship between the United States and the European Union stands at a critical juncture. Long considered a cornerstone of the post-World War II international legal and political order, the US-EU partnership has traditionally been underpinned by shared liberal democratic values, open markets, and a mutual commitment to multilateralism and the rule of law. Yet recent developments from escalating trade disputes and regulatory clashes in the digital economy to diverging approaches in international arbitration and competition law […]
Ilias Bantekas* ABSTRACT The lex sportiva embodies the notion that sport governing bodies (SGBs) possess full authority to promulgate their own rules and render these binding by reason of contract to all their constituent stakeholders, including, inter alia, athletes, clubs and national federations. Their non-profit character has allowed them to attract a preferential status and enjoy financial benefits generally out of reach to ordinary commercial actors (e.g., immunities, tax privileges), even though SGBs engage in significant revenue-generating activities. This preferential status has given them a dominant place in the marketplace of mega-sporting events and until recently shielded them from any […]
by Tamas Dezso Ziegler, Balázs Horváthy, Thomas Buijnink ABSTRACT This paper elaborates on the role of legal exceptionalism in European integration from the perspective of EU Member States, with special regards to Hungary’s position. Its aim is to prove two points. First, exceptionalism is a natural consequence of increased dependency among European countries. From a legal perspective, this dependency translates into extensive regulatory practices in sensitive fields and increased pooling of sovereignty. Under such circumstances, if states disrespect EU law, they can become renegades, which is a logical consequence of intense cooperation. Second, the EU as a political community can […]
by Maria Lucia Passador* ABSTRACT The EU Artificial Intelligence Act (AI Act) is a landmark piece of legislation designed to regulate AI systems according to their risk levels and ensure the protection of fundamental rights. This paper focuses on the interplay between the AI Act and prudential supervision within the EU banking sector, with a particular focus on the role of the European Central Bank (ECB). The study delves into the legal framework underpinning the ECB’s supervisory responsibilities, and prudential tasks, also examining the AI governance, as well as the collaborative dynamics between the ECB, the AI Office, and the […]
Helen Jennings* ABSTRACT This paper examines a development in recent judgments of the European Court of Human Rights (“the Court,” “ECtHR”) regarding the prohibition of torture, inhuman and degrading treatment under Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights (“Article 3,” “ECHR”). Since the 2010s, the Court has linked the prohibition of degrading treatment uniquely with the concept of human dignity.1 In cases regarding certain applicant groups, in particular women from the Roma population and LGBT+ people, the Court has used the concept of human dignity to radically expand the typical boundaries of protection offered under Article 3. This paper […]
By Aleydis Nissen* In February 2024, during the final stages of adopting the EU Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CS3D)—a flagship directive imposing human rights and environmental obligations on large companies in their global value chains—the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, warned that failure to pass the directive would be a “massive blow.” Fast forward to February 2025, and that blow has been delivered by the Ursula von der Leyen Commission II through an omnibus package aimed at “simplifying” the adopted CS3D in the name of “competitiveness”. The package calls for “far-reaching simplification” of CSRD, aligning […]
By James Marson and Katy Ferris* Can a driver of a vehicle transition to become its passenger during a journey if another passenger assumes control of the vehicle? Interestingly, the Motor Vehicle Insurance Directive (MVID) 2009/103/EC— the legislative framework governing compulsory motor insurance and civil liability across the EU—does not explicitly define the term “driver.” Instead, its provisions and case law predominantly refer to the “use of a vehicle.” This lack of definitional clarity leaves significant questions unanswered. Here we present the first analysis of this issue, highlighting that determining whether a driver becomes a passenger is primarily a factual […]
By Davide Genini On 10 September 2024, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) delivered a landmark judgment in KS and KD v Council. This blog post explores the ECJ’s judicial authority over CFSP matters in light of this pivotal decision, highlighting its potential impact on the broader European integration process. It argues that by extending its jurisdiction in CFSP via the political question doctrine, the Court has made a significant step towards deeper EU integration, though the challenges this poses should not be underestimated. I. Introduction In response to human rights violations that occurred during the execution of EULEX Kosovo […]
by: Justin Lindeboom** ABSTRACT In EU constitutional law scholarship, comparisons with US constitutional law have been both a major intergenerational topic of interest and a significant blind spot. On the one hand, similarities and differences in constitutional DNA and federal architecture have been analyzed by multiple generations of scholars over the past four decades.[1] Less attention, however, has been given to other avenues for EU–US comparative constitutional analysis, such as the modalities of negative market integration,[2] the procedural law governing “federal” (more accurately “supranational” in the EU context) courts,[3] or even the development of constitutional principles over time.[4] In this interview, […]
by: Sarah Ganty* & Dimitry V. Kochenov** ABSTRACT The European Union (EU) deploys a number of legal techniques in an effort to make sure that virtually no denial of racialized noncitizens’ rights–across the spectrum from equality and dignity to the right to life–is ever presented as a violation of EU law, even as the death-toll climbs to the dozens of thousands, turning the Mediterranean Sea into a mass grave through the EU’s and Member States’ incessant efforts. Making this possible is the work of what we would term “EU lawlessness law”: a careful summoning of diverse legal techniques to make […]
by: Peter Davis* INTRODUCTION This paper argues that a right to encryption exists under the European Charter of Fundamental Rights[1] (“Charter”). The primary consequence of this right, as elaborated below, is to preclude any legal instrument within the scope of the Charter’s application that indiscriminately reduces the efficacy of encryption in mass-market applications and devices. Or, put in “Crypto Wars”[2] vernacular, this paper claims that encryption “backdoors” are prohibited as a matter of EU law. On its face, this is an ambitious claim. Until recently,[3] “right to encryption” has only been spoken of gingerly in English language academic discourse[4] (though […]
by: Ivana Isailović* ABSTRACT The US Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs—alongside transnational campaigns aimed at chipping away abortion access across EU Member States—has triggered concerns by EU institutions and governments on access to abortion in the Union. This paper maps out the ways in which the EU regulates abortion through economic and human rights frameworks and evaluates their effects on gender equality. I argue that current EU legal frameworks contribute to producing a system of stratified reproductive freedom which entrenches intersectional gender-based inequalities. On the one hand, EU economic law protects the reproductive freedom of women and pregnant people who […]
By Alexandros Kazimirov The creation of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office was a thirty-year effort to balance national sovereignty with supranational authority. Yet, just two years after its launch, the agency’s expanded role is an unintended consequence of everything that occurred during its establishment. Specifically, the expansion of the European Union’s budgetary base is set to fundamentally transform the Office’s caseload. But a transformation in scope requires structural reforms as well. This post outlines how a recent surge of investments in defense and energy presents an opportunity to reform the Office into an independent enforcement agency capable of delivering meaningful […]
By Mauro Fragale and Valentina Grilli* The Deepfake Dilemma: Legal Implications of AI-Generated Content In July, X (formerly Twitter) CEO Elon Musk shared a parody Kamala Harris campaign, in which the candidate for the United States (US) presidency – or rather, an AI-manipulated version of her voice – exposed herself as an incompetent, token candidate. The incident intensified an ongoing global debate about AI-generated misinformation, particularly as it affects important elections. Just a year ago, European Union (EU) institutions voiced their worries for this increasingly diffused phenomenon: in the wake of Russian efforts to undermine public opinion and influence citizens […]
by: Daniel Calleja, Tim Maxian Rusche, Trajan Shipley* “Europe will be forged in crises, and will be the sum of the solutions adopted for those crises” Jean Monnet[1] INTRODUCTION Since 2008, the Union faced a series of crises. The response – sometimes after initial attempts by Member States to “go it alone” – was ultimately always found at the level of the Union, within the existing EU Treaties, as they stood after the Treaty of Lisbon, and entailed new tasks and new responsibilities for the Union.[2] Sometimes, available legal options were straightforward: The Europeanisation of banking supervision relied on […]