Van Gend en Loos Plus 50: The Changing Social Context of Direct Effect

Michal Bobek 

College of Europe; University of Oxford, Institute of European and Comparative Law
December 23, 2013

In: Court of Justice (ed.), 50th anniversary of the judgment in Van Gend en Loos 1963–2013 (Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications, 2013), 181-187. 
Abstract:      

This shorter commentary examines the social foundation for direct effect fifthy years after the decision of the Court of Justice in Van Gend en Loos. Can the on-going legitimacy for direct effect remain the same today as it was some fifty years ago? Or should the changed social context of the Union of today as opposed to the EEC in 1960s, matter for redefining the justification narrative of direct effect and much of the legitimacy of the Court’s case-law?

Number of Pages in PDF File: 7

Keywords: direct effect; Van Gend en Loos; Court of Justice; EU law; legitimacy

Full text available at: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2371217