The European Court of Justice and the Standard of Judicial Review
Publication date
2019
Authors
Widdershoven, R.J.G.M.
Editors
Poorter, Jurgen de
Hirsch Ballin, Ernst
Lavrijssen, Saskia
Advisors
Supervisors
DOI
Document Type
Part of book
Metadata
Show full item recordCollections
License
No license information available
Abstract
In this chapter the standards of judicial review applied by the ECJ when assessing Union acts and decisions and those that are imposed by the ECJ on the national courts when reviewing decisions within the scope of Union law, are examined in comprehensive way. It is proposed that the ECJ is strengthening its grip on the level of national judicial review of those decisions and that the formerly applied national autonomy approach is gradually but surely vanishing. Instead the ECJ increasingly transports its standards of review of EU acts to the review to be conducted by the national courts of similar acts and decisions. These standards include a process-oriented review of discretion and margins of appreciation. This process review combines a strict review of the authorities’ establishment of the facts with a test of the statement of reasons. Therefore, it could better be qualified as semi-procedural. This test provides for the necessary compensation for judicial deference in relation to the substance of the decisions concerned.
Keywords
Judicial review, process review, substantive review, national procedural autonomy, effective judicial protection, fundamental rights, discretion, margins of appreciation, establishment of the facts, appraisal of the facts, duty to examine, rights of defence, statement of reasons
Citation
Widdershoven, R J G M 2019, The European Court of Justice and the Standard of Judicial Review. in J D Poorter, E Hirsch Ballin & S Lavrijssen (eds), Judicial Review of Administrative Discretion in the Administrative State. Asser Press, The Hague, pp. 39-62.