Europeanisation of Administrative Justice?
The Influence of the ECJ’s Case Law
in Italy, Germany and England
The European Union is based on a system of decentralised enforcement, since EU law is mainly enforced before the national courts via the national procedural rules, subject to the principles of equivalence and effectiveness. This system presupposes the cooperation of the national courts in the correct and effective enforcement of European law. In order to examine whether national courts have adequately served as ‘European courts’, and whether they have ensured an effective judicial protection of the rights which citizens derive from EU law, the article reports the results of an investigation as to whether, and to what extent, the national administrative courts of Italy, Germany and England have applied the standards of protection set out in the ECJ’s case law with regard to five sets of national procedural rules. Furthermore, an investigation is made with regard to whether the ECJ’s case law has contributed to an increasing similarity of the three legal systems. Finally, the article discusses whether, for the purposes of ensuring an effective judicial protection of European law rights, the rules on the decentralised enforcement of EU law in administrative courts should be harmonised by the European legislator.
