IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/asr/journl/v11y2021i1p5-29.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The principle of effectiveness of EU law: a difficult concept in legal scholarship

Author

Listed:
  • M. Elvira Mendez-Pinedo

    (University of Iceland, Reykjavik, Iceland)

Abstract

Effectiveness is a principle frequently used by the Court of Justice of the European Union to secure the authority of EU law over national law. This study analysis the scholarly treatment of the concept in most relevant selected academic literature and draws some conclusions, mostly that difficulties remain surrounding the conceptualization of the principle. The Court uses it in a variety of ways and judicial outcomes are linked to the context of every case at hand. On one hand, we find effectiveness as a stand-alone principle or expression of general “effet utile†; but, on the other hand, we see the use of the term strongly connected to the effective judicial protection of individual rights and/ or as limit to national procedural autonomy. The concept is furthermore embedded in a complex matrix of various other principles of EU law, namely primacy, direct effect, indirect effect or the obligation of consistent interpretation, and Member State liability for breaches of EU law. The results of the study lead to question whether there is really one single concept of effectiveness in EU law and lead to further research in order to explore whether a comprehensive and coherent theory is necessary, feasible and/or desirable.

Suggested Citation

  • M. Elvira Mendez-Pinedo, 2021. "The principle of effectiveness of EU law: a difficult concept in legal scholarship," Juridical Tribune - Review of Comparative and International Law, Bucharest Academy of Economic Studies, vol. 11(1), pages 5-29, March.
  • Handle: RePEc:asr:journl:v:11:y:2021:i:1:p:5-29
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.tribunajuridica.eu/arhiva/An11v1/1.Elvira%20Mendez%20Pinedo.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Keywords

    effectiveness; EU law; principle; academic literature; meanings and conceptualization.;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • K10 - Law and Economics - - Basic Areas of Law - - - General (Constitutional Law)
    • K33 - Law and Economics - - Other Substantive Areas of Law - - - International Law

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:asr:journl:v:11:y:2021:i:1:p:5-29. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catalin-Silviu Sararu (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/aseeero.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.