CELS Lunchtime Webinar: 'The Realist Trend of the Court of Justice of the European Union'

Title: 'The Realist Trend of the Court of Justice of the European Union'

Speaker: Dr Damjan Kukovec

Biography: Damjan Kukovec is a Senior Lecturer in Law at Middlesex School of Law in London. Before joining the Middlesex faculty, Dr Kukovec taught at Harvard Law School, Fundação Getúlio Vargas (FGV) Law School in Rio de Janeiro, Kent Law School in Brussels, University of Ljubljana School of Law and the European University Institute (EUI) in Florence. Prior to entering academia, Dr Kukovec practised for the Legal Service of the European Commission in Brussels. He represented the Commission in front of the European Court of Justice in references for preliminary rulings, infringement proceedings, and direct actions. He successfully argued numerous cases concerning the free movement of goods and services, public procurement, and automotive, chemicals, and environmental legislation. He also practised at the European Court of Justice, and clerked for the Appeals Chamber of the Special Court for Sierra Leone, drafting historic decisions including Fofana—Illegal Delegation of Powers by UN and Norman—Child Recruitment.  

Abstract: This paper seeks to explain the rationale behind the recent jurisprudential turn of the Court of Justice of the European Union. It identifies an enhanced trend to legal realism and articulates its three main propositions through an exploration of competition law, state aid law and trade mark law. Vigorous engagement with social fact and analytical clarity, the fundamental contributions of the Court’s realist trend, lead to knowledge and ensure that normativity, anchored in the goals and values of the Union, can gain its full thrust. Further, decoupling a more economic approach from the realist approach reveals its independent normative value. The enhanced turn to realism represents a qualitative leap of the Court’s overall judicial analysis, and is vital for effective judicial review. The Court’s realist trend thus importantly serves the right to effective judicial protection, as foreseen in Article 47 of the Charter, by avoiding arbitrariness and error in law. Any departure from the three realist propositions, for example for the sake of increased administrability, thus carries an important social cost. Bearing these insights in mind, the described trend is also of broader importance to any field of European Union law.

Zoom Registration: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_XvDpA2B0S3GyZtGKLzTMQQ