Judicial Control in the European Union: Reforming Jurisdiction in the Intergovernmental Pillars

The EU's activity under its intergovernmental pillars - The Common Foreign and Security Policy and Justice and Home Affairs - has traditionally been beyond the scope of judicial control offered by the central EC legal system. The increasing importance of this activity, and its growing intrusion into the lives of individuals, has led to a sense that the level of judicial oversight and protection is insufficient and that the constitutional balance of the Union stands in urgent need of reform. While the need for reform is widely recognised, wholesale constitutional change has been stalled by the failure to ratify the Constitutional Treaty and the delay in ratifying the Treaty of Lisbon. This book charts the attempts to develop more satisfactory judicial control over the intergovernmental pillars in the face of such constitutional inertia. It examines the leading role played by the European Court of Justice in reforming its own jurisdiction, and analyses the ECJ's development as a constitutional court in comparison with more established constitutional adjudicators. Throughout the book the current constitutional position is compared extensively to the reforms introduced by the Treaty of Lisbon, offering a timely snapshot of the EU's federal structure in a state of flux.

1. Introduction: The ECJ as a Federal Constitutional Court ; 1.1 The Context: Models of Constitutional Review ; 1.2 The ECJ as a Federal Constitutional Court ; 1.3 The ECJ as a Constitutional Court in the Second and Third Pillars ; 2. Judicial Control in the Area of Freedom, Security and Justice ; 2.1 Introduction ; 2.2 The Nature of AFSJ Measures ; 2.3 The Jurisdiction of the ECJ at Present ; 2.4 Cherry-Picking: Institutional Ways to Fix Problems without the Constitutional Treaty ; 2.5 The Jurisdiction of the ECJ under the Lisbon Treaty ; 2.6 Final Remarks ; 3. Judicial Control in the Common Foreign and Security Policy ; 3.1 Introduction ; 3.2 The Nature of CFSP Measures ; 3.3 The Jurisdiction of the ECJ in CFSP at Present ; 3.4 The Jurisdiction of the ECJ Under the Lisbon Treaty ; 3.5 What the CFSP is Missing and its Consequences ; 4. Concluding Remarks: A Constitutional Court for the EU? ; 4.1 The Lisbon Treaty ; Bibliography ; Index