An Indirect Yet Clear Challenge to the Primacy of the European Law over National Law Posed by the Jurisprudence of the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany

An Indirect Yet Clear Challenge to the Primacy of the European Law
over National Law Posed by the Jurisprudence
of the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany

Prokopios Pavlopoulos

Former President of the Hellenic Republic,
Emeritus Professor of the Law School οf the National and Capodistrian University of Athens

The article gives an objective overview of the institutional and political ramifications of the “Gauweiler” and “Weiss” jurisprudence - and the corresponding juridprudential course from 2016 to 2020 - of the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany, which thus openly challenged - by contesting the binding nature of the CJEU judgments - the primacy of the European Law over National Law. The question strongly arises of what needs to be done, in order to deal promptly and appropriately with this turbulent situation related to the function of the European Legal Order.

L’article propose une vue d’ensemble objective des ramifications institutionnelles et politiques de la jurisprudence Gauweiler et Weiss - et du parcours jurisprudentiel correspondant, de 2016 à 2020 - de la Cour constitutionnelle fédérale allemande, qui a ainsi ouvertement remis en question - en contestant la nature contraignante des arrêts de la CJUE - la primauté du droit de l’Union sur le droit national. La question qui se pose avec acuité est de savoir ce qu’il convient de faire pour régler rapidement et de manière appropriée cette situation trouble quant à la fonction de l’ordre juridique européen.

* Full version of the article that was, partially, published in Greek in Efimerida Dioikitikou Dikaiou, vol. 1/2020, p. 2 et seq.