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Aliprantis, Nikitas --- "What Remedies for Social Derivatives and Expansionism of the Court of Justice of the European Union?" [2011] ELECD 885; in Moreau, Marie-Ange (ed), "Before and After the Economic Crisis" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2011)

Book Title: Before and After the Economic Crisis

Editor(s): Moreau, Marie-Ange

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781849809924

Section: Chapter 6

Section Title: What Remedies for Social Derivatives and Expansionism of the Court of Justice of the European Union?

Author(s): Aliprantis, Nikitas

Number of pages: 10

Extract:

6. What remedies for social derivatives
and expansionism of the Court of
Justice of the European Union?
Nikitas Aliprantis

OPENING REMARKS

In their anxiety to gradually create a common body of rules governing
the European countries, the fathers of the current European Union (EU)
established, among other things, the Court of Justice of the European
Communities (CJEC, CJEU or ECJ today), and they endowed it with
exorbitant judicial power, which is unique in the world.1 They were obvi-
ously aware of this enormous attribution of competence envisaged by
the then Article 164 of the EEC Treaty and which remains unchanged
today in Article 19 of the Treaty of Lisbon (TEU). Under this provision
the ECJ `shall ensure that in the interpretation and application of the
Treaties the law is observed'. It is clear that the `law' is set up in a separate
parameter distinct from the treaties and must `inspire' their interpreta-
tion. Even if we ignore this formula which legitimates the Court's deter-
mination of what the `law' is, the interpretation itself of the treaties is the
uncontrolled and exclusive work of this Court. But then: quis custodiat
curiam? Unfortunately, neither the original inspirers of the CJEC, nor
the drafters of the new EU Treaty have provided `safety valves' against
disproportionate expansionism and against derived interpretations of
the European jurisdiction.2 This `lacuna' is all the more serious as we
witness for some time now how both of the dangers occur, especially at
the social level. This ...