On 22 November 2005 the European Court of Justice (hereafter, the Court) rendered its Mangold-ruling on Council Directive 2000/78/EC of 27 November 2000 establishing a general framework for equal treatment in employment and occupation (hereafter, Directive 2000/78). The most striking part of this judgment, rendered in a private dispute, was the following conclusion:

Community law and, more particularly, Article 6(1) of (…) Directive 2000/78/EC (…) must be interpreted as precluding a provision of domestic law such as that at issue in the main proceedings (…) It is the responsibility of the national court to guarantee the full effectiveness of the general principle of non-discrimination in respect of age, setting aside any provision of national law which may conflict with Community law, even where the period prescribed for transposition of that directive has not yet expired.

The judgment evoked a great amount of criticism from the media, academia, several advocates general and the member states.