¹ Komárek, Jan, The Place of Constitutional Courts in the EU, 9 Eur. Const. L. Rev. 420 (2013).Google Scholar

² Id. at 449.Google Scholar

³ See Martinico, Giuseppe, Judging in the Multilevel Legal Order: Exploring The Techniques Of ‘Hidden Dialogue', 21 King's L. J. 257 (2010).Google Scholar

⁴ Komárek, supra note 1, at 436.Google Scholar

⁵ Martinico, supra note 3; Martinico, Giuseppe, Multiple loyalties and dual preliminarity: The pains of being a judge in a multilevel legal order, 10 Int'l J. Const. L. 871 (2012).Google Scholar

⁶ This is the formula (“dialogo a distanza”) used by Gabriella Angiulli, Il rinvio pregiudiziale alla Corte di giustizia dell'Unione europea da parte dei Giudici costituzionali degli Stati membri, http://www.gruppodipisa.it/wpcontent/uploads/2011/05/SIENA_Scuola_dottorale_in_-Diritto_-ed_-economia.pdf (2011).Google Scholar

⁷ Komárek, supra note 1, at 422. The author was referring to the view expressed by Arthur Dyevre, European Integration and National Courts: Defending Sovereignty under Institutional Constraints? 9 Euro. Const. L. Rev. 139 (2013).Google Scholar

⁸ Orders of 17 December 2013 and of 14 January 2014, 2 Bundesverfassungsgericht [BVerfG] [Federal Constitutional Court] 1390/12; 2 BVerfGE 1421/12; 2 BVerfGE 1438/12; 2 BVerfGE 1439/12; 2 BVerfGE 1440/12; 2 BVerfGE 1824/12; 2 BvE 6/12, available at https://www.bundesverfassungsgericht.de.Google Scholar

⁹ Gerstenberg, Oliver, An End to European Multilateralism: A Comment on the German Bundesverfassungsgericht's OMT decision, available at http://eutopialaw.com/2014/02/19/an-end-to-european-multilateralism-a-comment-on-the-german-bundesverfassungsgerichts-omt-decision/ (2014); Delledonne, Giacomo, La ‘prima volta’ di Karlsruhe: il rinvio pregiudiziale relativo alle outright monetary transactions (2014), available at www.csfederalismo.it/it/pubblicazioni/commenti/797-la-prima-volta-di-karlsruhe-il-rinvio-pregiudiziale-relativo-alle-outright-monetary-transactions.Google Scholar

¹⁰ Case C–399/11, Stefano Melloni v. Ministerio Fiscal, available at http://curia.europa.eu/. Mr. Melloni, an Italian citizen living in Spain, was convicted in absentia for bankruptcy fraud by a sentence delivered by the Tribunale of Ferrara and arrested by the Spanish police. On the basis of the Council Framework Decision on the European Arrest Warrant (2002/584/JHA as amended by the Framework Decision 2009/299/JHA) the Italian authorities asked for the activation of the mechanism. Mr. Melloni opposed surrender to the Italian authorities, by arguing the violation of the right to defence. The Audiencia Nacional (a special Spanish high court) decided to surrender Mr. Melloni to Italy since it considered the right to defence was respected (Mr. Melloni, in fact, was aware of the trial, opted for the asbentia and appointed two lawyers to defend himself). Against the order of the Audiencia Nacional, Mr. Melloni opposed a recurso de amparo (a direct action for the protection of constitutional rights guaranteed by the Constitution) before the Spanish Constitutional Court.Google Scholar

¹¹ After the delivery of this Article, two other Constitutional Courts raised preliminary questions ex Art. 267 TFEU to the CJEU: the Ustavno sodišče (Slovenian Constitutional Court), Order U-I-295/13) available at http://www.usrs.si/aktualno/novice/sklep-ustavnega-sodisca-st-u-i-29513-z-dne-6-11-2014/ and the Trybunał Konstytucyjny (Polish Constitutional Court) decision K 61/13, available at http://otk.trybunal.gov.pl/OTK/otk_odp.asp?droga=%28otk_odp%29&sygnatura=K%2061/13.Google Scholar

¹² Melloni, Case C-399/11 at para.58.Google Scholar

¹³ Id. at para.60.Google Scholar

¹⁴ To quote the formula used, also recently, by some scholars: Bogdandy, Armin von & Schill, Stephan, Overcoming absolute primacy: Respect for national identity under the Lisbon Treaty, 48 Common Mkt. L. Rev. 1417 (2011).Google Scholar

¹⁵ Tribunal Constitucional (Spanish Constitutional Court), sentencia No. 26/2014 of 13 February 2014, available at http://www.tribunalconstitucional.es/es/jurisprudencia/restrad/Paginas/JCCJCC262014en.aspx.Google Scholar

¹⁶ Pérez, Aida Torres, Melloni in Three Acts: From Dialogue to Monologue, 10 Eur. Const. L. Rev. 308 (2014).Google Scholar

¹⁷ Case C-314/08, Filipiak, 2009 E.C.R. I-11049.Google Scholar

¹⁸ Case C-409/06, Winner Wetten, 2010 E.C.R. I-08015.Google Scholar

¹⁹ “The ECtHR's margin of appreciation doctrine plays a role similar to that of the reverse Solange jurisprudence of Schmidberger and Omega—allowing the court to acknowledge and defer to national specificities in the understanding of common principles—while the BVG's Görgülü doctrine corresponds to Solange—allowing the national court to defer to judgments by the ECtHR, as long as the latter provides, in general, equivalent protection of fundamental rights.” Charles F. Sabel & Oliver Gerstenberg Constitutionalising an Overlapping Consensus: The ECI and the Emergence of a Coordinate Constitutional Order, 16 Eur. L. J. 511 (2010).Google Scholar

²⁰ On the importance of constitutional transformation in European constitutional law, see Fossum, John Erik & Agustín José Menéndez, The Constitution's Gift. A Constitutional Theory for a Democratic European Union 28 (2010). See also Joseph H.H. Weiler, The transformation of Europe, in The Constitution of Europe 10 (Joseph H.H. Weiler ed., 1999).Google Scholar

²¹ Using the distinction employed by the Spanish Constitutional Court: Tribunal Constitucional, declaración 1/2004 of 13 December 2004, available at www.tribunalconstitucional.es.Google Scholar

²² Bogdandy, von & Schill, Stephan, supra note 14.Google Scholar

²³ On constitutional pluralism, see MacCormick, Neil, Beyond the sovereign state, 56 Mod. L. Rev. 1 (1993); Walker, Neil, The Idea of Constitutional Pluralism, 65 Mod. L. Rev. 317 (2002); and Maduro, Miguel P., Contrapuntal law: Europe's constitutional pluralism in action, in Sovereignty in Transition 501 (Neil Walker ed., 2003).Google Scholar

²⁴ Pernice, Ingolf, Multilevel Constitutionalism and the Treaty of Amsterdam: European Constitution Making Revisited?, 36 Common Mkt. L. Rev. 703 (1999); Mayer, Franz & Pernice, Ingolf, La costituzione integrata dell'Europa, in Diritti e Costituzione nell'Unione Europea 49, 43 (Gustavo Zagrebelsky ed., 2005); Pernice, Ingolf, Multilevel Constitutionalism in the European Union, 27 Eur. L. Rev. 511 (2002). On multilevel constitutionalism, see also Leonard Besselink, A Composite European Constitution/Een Samengestelde Europese Constitutie (2007).Google Scholar

²⁵ Bogdandy, von & Schill, supra note 14.Google Scholar

²⁶ Article 4 TEU states,Google Scholar

²⁷ Bogdandy, von & Schill, supra note 14, at 1,418.Google Scholar

²⁸ Id. Google Scholar

²⁹ I developed this thesis in Martinico, Giuseppe, What lies behind Article 4.2 TEU?, in National constitutional identity and European integration 93 (Alejandro Saiz Arnaiz & Carina Alcoberro Llivina eds., 2013).Google Scholar

³⁰ Bundesverfassungsgericht [BVerfG] [Federal Constitutional Court], Case 2 BvG 52/71 Bundesverfassungsgericht: Federal Constitutional Court [1974] 2 CMLR 540.Google Scholar

³¹ On this process, see Gordillo, Luis I., Interlocking Constitutions Towards an Interordinal Theory of National, European and UN Law 66 (2012). The Author describes a process, consisting of two stages—“the establishment of the red lines” and “the rapprochement of positions.”Google Scholar

³² Pizzorusso, Alessandro, Common constitutional traditions as Constitutional Law of Europe? Sant'Anna Legal Studies (STALS) Research Paper, 1/2008, http://stals.sssup.it/files/stals_Pizzorusso.pdf (2008).Google Scholar

³³ See, for instance, Articles 9 (“right to marry and right to found a family”), 10(2) (“freedom of thought, conscience and religion”), 14(3) (“right to education”), 27 (“workers’ right to information and consultation within the undertaking”), 28 (“right of collective bargaining and action”), 30 (“protection in the event of unjustified dismissal”, and 34–36 (“social security and social assistance”, “health care” and “access to services of general economic interest”). A possible effect of such provisions might be to increase the reference to the national traditions of Member States, a sort of margin of appreciation doctrine spread at EU level—especially when the reference to national legislations and practices is not accompanied by that to EU law—but of course this also implies the risk of an erroneous reference to national legislations. Title IV, devoted to “Solidarity,” is particularly rich in such references and perhaps it is not a coincidence, since in this field the EUCFR is more innovative than in other cases (with the exceptions of the title devoted to “Citizens’ rights”, for obvious reasons) compared with the ECHR.Google Scholar

³⁴ After the delivery of this article, this attention paid to fundamental rights has been somehow questioned by Opinion 2/13 delivered by the CJEU and concerning the accession of the EU to the ECHR. CJEU, Opinion 2/13, pursuant to Article 218(11) TFEU, (Dec. 18, 2014), http://curia.europa.eu/. However, despite this Opinion, I still think that the EU has not abandoned its project to transform itself into a Europe of Rights.Google Scholar

³⁵ See Ruggeri, Antonio, Trattato costituzionale, europeizzazione dei ‘controlimiti’ e tecniche di risoluzione delle antinomie tra diritto comunitario e diritto interno (profili problematici), available at www.forumcostituzionale.it (2005). See also, Mattias Kumm, The jurisprudence of constitutional conflict: Constitutional supremacy in Europe before and after the Constitutional Treaty, 11 Eur. L. J. 262 (2005).Google Scholar

³⁶ For instance, the many provisions of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU. I reflected on these clauses in another piece: Giuseppe Martinico, Chasing the European Court of Justice: On Some (Political) Attempts to Hijack the European Integration Process, 14 Int'l Community L. Rev. 243 (2012).Google Scholar

³⁷ “European unification on the basis of a union of sovereign states under the Treaties may, however, not be realised in such a way that the Member States do not retain sufficient space for the political formation of the economic, cultural and social circumstances of life. This applies in particular to areas which shape the citizens’ circumstances of life, in particular the private space of their own responsibility and of political and social security, which is protected by the fundamental rights, and to political decisions that particularly depend on previous understanding as regards culture, history and language and which unfold in discourses in the space of a political public that is organised by party politics and Parliament. Essential areas of democratic formative action comprise, inter alia, citizenship, the civil and the military monopoly on the use of force, revenue and expenditure including external financing and all elements of encroachment that are decisive for the realisation of fundamental rights, above all as regards intensive encroachments on fundamental rights such as the deprivation of liberty in the administration of criminal law or the placement in an institution. These important areas also include cultural issues such as the disposition of language, the shaping of circumstances concerning the family and education, the ordering of the freedom of opinion, of the press and of association and the dealing with the profession of faith or ideology.” Bundesverfassungsgericht [BVerfG] [Federal Constitutional Court], cases 2 BvE 2/08 at para. 249.Google Scholar

³⁸ More recently see a decision of the Czech Constitutional Court which did not have to do with constitutional identity but which demonstrates the permanent risks of conflicts even after the entry into force of Article 4(2) TEU. Ústavní soud (Czech Constitutional Court, judgment of 31 January, PI. ÚS 5/12, Slovak Pensions XVII. The English translation is available at http:// http://www.usoud.cz/.Google Scholar

³⁹ Martinico, Giuseppe, The Tangled Complexity of the EU Constitutional Process: The Frustrating Knot of Europe (2012).Google Scholar

⁴⁰ The mot-problème (Edgar Morin, Introduzione al pensiero complesso, 1993, and Edgar Morin, Conoscenza della conoscenza, 1989) complexity is polysemous. Millard, for instance, recalls at least four different meanings of the word ‘complex’ (Eric Millard, Eléments pour une approche analytique de la complexité, in Droit et complexite Pour une nouvelle intelligence du droit vivant 141 (Mathieu Doat, Jacques Le Goff, & Philippe Pédrot eds., 2007). Complex, in fact, is often used as a synonym of “complicated” and in this sense an antinomy may be understood as complex given its difficulty in being solved because of the legal abundance caused by the coexistence of so many legislators in the EU and of the consequent difficult manageability of the several materials, languages and meanings present in the multilevel system. Secondly, complexity may refer “à la situation d'un objet fragmentée, découpée. L'ensemble social n'est pas simple, au sens d'une théorie des ensembles: il résulte de l'addition ou de l'interaction entre une pluralité d'ensembles partiels, eux- měmes sans doute s'entreměles (Id. 143).” Thirdly, complex is understood as non-aprioristic/pragmatic; in this respect a reason is complex when it cannot infer choices and decisions from general, clear and abstract principles which were defined aprioristically. On Europe as a complex system, see Morin, Edgar, Pensare l'Europa (1988).Google Scholar

⁴¹ Scholars have identified at least four different meanings of primacy/supremacy in CJEU case law. Moreover, the notion of primacy enshrined in Art I-6 of the Constitutional Treaty seems to be different from that used by the CJEU. See, e.g., Monica Claes, The National Courts’ Mandate in the European Constitution 100 (2006). In order to find a solution to this ambiguity, some scholars have devised a ‘law of laws'; see Eijsbouts, Willem Tom & Besselink, Leonard, Editorial: The Law of Laws—Overcoming Pluralism, 4 Eur. Const. L. Rev. 395 (2008).Google Scholar

⁴² See, for instance, the piece by Dani, Marco, Economic and Social Conflicts, Integration and Constitutionalism in Contemporary Europe, LSE ‘Europe in Question’ Discussion Paper Series, 13/2009, available at http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1518629 (2009). See also the special issue of the European Law Journal (Volume 18, Issue 5) devoted to this subject and edited by Damian Chalmers and Marco Dani with contributions by Michelle Everson, Christian Joerges, Alexander Somek, and Floris de Witte. See also Dani, Marco, Il diritto pubblico europeo nella prospettiva dei conflitti (2013).Google Scholar

⁴³ Angiulli, supra note 6.Google Scholar

⁴⁴ This was, for instance, the word used by Tomuschat, Christian, La Unión Europea en el marco constitucional de los Estados Miembros. El caso de Alemania, at a conference given at the Complutense University on 17 April 2013. See also Ragone, Sabrina, Las relaciones de los Tribunales Constitucionales de los Estados miembros con el Tribunal de Justicia y con el Tribunal Europeo de Derechos Humanos: una propuesta de clasificación, Revista de Derecho Constitucional Europeo, available at http://www.ugr.es/~redce/REDCE16/articulos/02SRagone.htm (2011).Google Scholar

⁴⁵ Bundesverfassungsgericht [BVerfG] [Federal Constitutional Court], orders of 17 Dec. 2013 and of 14 Jan. 2014, 2 BvR 1390/12; 2 BvR 1421/12; 2 BvR 1438/12; 2 BvR 1439/12; 2 BvR 1440/12; 2 BvR 1824/12; 2 BvE 6/12, available at https://www.bundesverfassungsgericht.de.Google Scholar

⁴⁶ Among others, see Cour d'Arbitrage [Belgian Court of Arbitration], 19 February 1997, no. 6/97, available at www.arbitrage.be/fr/common/home.html Google Scholar

⁴⁷ Among others, see Verfassungsgerichtshof VfGH [Austrian Constitutional Court], 10 March 1999, B 2251/97, B 2594/97, available at www.vfgh.gv.at/cms/vfgh-site Google Scholar

⁴⁸ Lietuvos Respublikos Konstitucinis Teismas [The Constitutional Court of the Republic of Lithuania], decision of 8 May 2007, available at www.lrkt.lt Google Scholar

⁴⁹ Corte Costituzionale [Italian Constitutonal Court], sentenza no. 102/2008 and ordinanza no. 103/2008, available at www.cortecostituzionale.it. The preliminary reference was raised during principaliter proceedings. More recently the Italian Constitutional Court extended its revirement to incidenter proceedings, see: ordinanza 207/2013, http://www.governo.it/Presidenza/CONTENZIOSO/comunicazione/allegati/ordinanza_207_2013_completa.pdf Google Scholar

⁵⁰ Tribunal Constitucional [Spanish Constitutional Court] Auto 86/2011, available at http://www.tribunalconstitucional.es/.Google Scholar

⁵¹ Conseil Constitutionnel [French Constitutional Council], Décision n° 2013-314P QPC 4 April 2013, available at http://www.conseil-constitutionnel.fr/conseil-constitutionnel/francais/les-decisions/acces-par-date/decisions-depuis-1959/2013/2013-314p-qpc/decision-n-2013-314p-qpc-du-04-avril-2013.136588.html.Google Scholar

⁵² Ustavno sodišče [Slovenian Constitutional Court], Order U–I–295/13) available at http://www.usrs.si/aktualno/novice/sklep-ustavnega-sodisca-st-u-i-29513-z-dne-6-11-2014/.Google Scholar

⁵³ Trybunał Konstytucyjny [Polish Constitutional Court] decision K 61/13, available at http://otk.trybunal.gov.pl/OTK/otk_odp.asp?droga=%28otk_odp%29&sygnatura=K%2061/13.Google Scholar

⁵⁴ Among her works, see Mouffe, Chantal, The Return of the Political (1993); Mouffe, Chantal, The Democratic Paradox (2000); Mouffe, Chantal, On the Political (2005) (“I use the concept of agonistic pluralism to present a new way to think about democracy which is different from the traditional liberal conception of democracy as a negotiation among interests and is also different from the model which is currently being developed by people like Jürgen Habermas and John Rawls. While they have many differences, Rawls and Habermas have in common the idea that the aim of the democratic society is the creation of a consensus, and that consensus is possible if people are only able to leave aside their particular interests and think as rational beings. However, while we desire an end to conflict, if we want people to be free we must always allow for the possibility that conflict may appear and to provide an arena where differences can be confronted. The democratic process should supply that arena.”); Mouffe, Chantal, Hearts, Minds and Radical Democracy, available at http://www.redpepper.org.uk/hearts-minds-and-radical-democracy/ (1998).Google Scholar

⁵⁵ Mouffe, Chantal, On the Political 3 (2005).Google Scholar

⁵⁶ Mouffe, Chantal, On the Political 84 (2005).Google Scholar

⁵⁷ “Because for me that is what politics is about. If there is politics in society it is because there is conflict […] I started to look at Freud. He does not really develop this idea from the perspective of the collective subject; he develops it more in terms of the individual. I consider the idea of the division of the subject—Eros and Thanatos—and the way the concept of the drive is linked to conflict, very important for politics. I have also been interested in the work of Elias Canetti, in ‘Masse und Macht', when he insists that there is a tension between the individuality and the drive to be part of the mass. Again, the idea that we are divided is predominant.” Chantal Mouffe, Hegemony, Democracy, Agonism and Journalism: An Interview with Chantal Mouffe, 7 Journalism Stud. 964 (2006), http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/3020/1/Hegemony,_democracy,_agonism_and_journalism_%28LSERO%29.pdf.Google Scholar

⁵⁸ Noonan, Jeff, Democratic society and human needs 193 (2006).Google Scholar

⁵⁹ Mouffe, Chantal, On the Political 120 (2005).Google Scholar

⁶⁰ Case C-36/02, Omega, 2004 E.C.R. I–9609.Google Scholar

⁶¹ Case C-213/07, Michaniki, 2008 E.C.R. I–9999.Google Scholar

⁶² Case C-34/09, Gerardo Ruiz Zambrano v. Office National de l'emploi, 2011 E.C.R. I-01177.Google Scholar

⁶³ Case C-173/09, Elchinov, 2010 E.C.R. I-08889.Google Scholar

⁶⁴ “It needs what I call a ‘conflictual consensus.’ We need to accept a common symbolic framework, but within this symbolic framework, of course, there is room for disagreement. Let me give you an example of what I mean by that. The common symbolic framework of modern pluralist democracy is the expression of ‘liberty and equality for all'. Those are its ‘ethico-political principles'. Citizens in a pluralist democracy need to agree that those are the principles that are going to inform their coexistence. But, of course, those shared principles can be interpreted in many different ways. After all, what is liberty? What is equality? And who belongs to this ‘all'? There are many different interpretations of this last term alone, and we should accept the legitimacy of those different interpretations.” Chantal Mouffe, Which Public Space for Critical Artistic Practices?, https://readingpublicimage.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/chantal_mouffe_cork_caucus.pdf (2005).Google Scholar

⁶⁵ Mouffe, Chantal, The Democratic Paradox 102 (2000). On the Schmittian influence, see Ince, Onur Ulas, The Return Of The Schmittian: Radical Democratic Theory At Its Limits, available at http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1675583 (2009).Google Scholar

⁶⁶ Halberstam, Daniel, Constitutional Heterarchy: The Centrality of Conflict in the European Union and the United States, in In Ruling the World? Constitutionalism, International Law and Global Governance 326 (Jeffrey L. Dunoff & Joel P. Trachtman eds., 2009) (“In one important sense, however, the relationship between the European Union and its Member States is, of course, different from that between the United States and the several states. In the United States, the relationship between federal and state law, and, in particular, between the federal Supreme Court and the state judiciary, are fully ordered…In the European Union, by contrast, the relationship between the central and component state legal orders is fundamentally unsettled.”)Google Scholar

⁶⁷ Started with the famous Solange I, Bundesverfassungsgericht [BVerfG] [Federal Constitutional Court], Case No. 2 BvG 52/71 Bundesverfassungsgericht: Federal Constitutional Court [1974] 2 CMLR 540.Google Scholar

⁶⁸ Joined Cases C–188/10 and C–189/10, Melki and Abdeli, 2010 E.C.R. I–05667.Google Scholar

⁶⁹ François-Xavier Millet, La ‘question prioritaire de constitutionnalité’ e il dialogo a singhiozzo tra giudici in Europa (Unione europea, Corte di giustizia dell'Unione europea, grande sezione, sentenza 22 giugno 2010, cause C-188/10 e C–189/10), 17 Giornale di diritto amministrativo 139 (2011).Google Scholar

⁷⁰ Case C–314/85, Foto-Frost, 1987 E.C.R. 4199.Google Scholar

⁷¹ Bundesverfassungsgericht [BVerfG] [Federal Constitutional Court], 26 Aug. 2010, Case No. 2 BvR 2261/06.Google Scholar

⁷² As Mayer pointed out: “[A]n ultra vires-control of European acts by the German Constitutional Court would only occur in extraordinary circumstances and obvious cases, and apparently a preliminary reference to the ECJ would have to take place first.” Franz Mayer, Rashomon in Karlsruhe—A Reflection on Democracy and Identity in the European Union, Jean Monnet Working Paper, 5/10, available at http:://jeanmonnetprogram.org/paper/rashomon-in-karlsruhe-a-reflection-on-democracy-and-identity-in-the-european-union/ (2010).Google Scholar

⁷³ As Le Goff put it when writing about the relation between complexity and labour law: “Comme si s'on optait pour la technique homéopathique de lutte contre le mal par le mal lui-měme, le désordre devenant paradoxalement vecteur d'ordre”, Jacques Le Goff, Le droit du travail, terre d'élection de la complexité, in Droit et complexite Pour une nouvelle intelligence du droit vivant 106 (Mathieu Doat, Jacques Le Goff & Philippe Pédrot eds., 2007).Google Scholar

⁷⁴ This is also consistent with a certain branch of political science scholars: Jack Knight Institutions and social conflict (1992). See also the importance of the relationship between conflicts and order in Machiavelli, especially in the Discourses on the Ten Books of Titus Livy. On this see: Alberto Giacomin, La ‘roba’ e gli ‘onori': conflitto distributivo e ordine politico nel pensiero di Machiavelli, Note di Lavoro, http://www.unive.it/media/allegato/DIP/Economia/Note_di_lavoro_sc_economiche/NL2007/NL_DSE_Giacomin_11_07.pdf (2007).Google Scholar

⁷⁵ Marty, Mireille Delmas, Le pluralisme ordonne et les interactions entre ensembles juridiques, Recueil Dalloz 951 (2006).Google Scholar

⁷⁶ For a different but very convincing idea of order, see Itzcovich, Giulio, Legal Order, Legal Pluralism, Fundamental Principles. Europe and Its Law in Three Concepts, 18 Eur. L. J. 358 (2012). For a stimulating reading on the relation between order and disorder see: Neil Walker, Beyond boundary disputes and basic grids: Mapping the global disorder of normative orders, 6 Int'l J. Const. L., 373 (2008).Google Scholar

⁷⁷ Omega, Case C–36/02.Google Scholar

⁷⁸ Case C–81/05, Cordero Alonso, 2006 E.C.R. I–7569.Google Scholar

⁷⁹ Case C–442/00, Rodríguez Caballero, 2002 E.C.R. I–11915.Google Scholar

⁸⁰ Tribunal Constitucional [Spanish Constitutional Court], decision No. 306/1993 of 25 October 1993, available at www.tribunalconstitucional.es Google Scholar

⁸¹ Cordero Alonso, Case C–81/05 at para. 41.Google Scholar

⁸² Omega, Case C–36/02.Google Scholar

⁸³ Case C–244/06, Dynamic Medien, 2008 E.C.R. I–505.Google Scholar

⁸⁴ Dani, Marco, Tracking Judicial Dialogue—The Scope for Preliminary Rulings from the Italian Constitutional Court, Jean Monnet Working Paper, 10/2008, available at http://econpapers.repec.org/paper/erpjeanmo/p0207.htm (2008). See also the reactions to the Mangold case (Case C–144/04, Mangold, 2005 ECR I–9981), Roman Herzog & Lüder Gerken, [Comment] Stop the European Court of Justice, available at http://euobserver.com/9/26714 (2008). This piece is the translation of an article originally published in German, Stoppt den Europäischen Gerichtshof, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 8 September 2008.Google Scholar

⁸⁵ Case C–314/08, Filipiak, 2009 E.C.R. I–11049.Google Scholar

⁸⁶ Winner Wetten, Case C–409/06.Google Scholar

⁸⁷ Id. Google Scholar

⁸⁸ Filipiak, Case C–314/08.Google Scholar

⁸⁹ Case C–416/10, Križan & Others, (Jan. 15 2013), http://curia.europa.eu/.Google Scholar

⁹⁰ Križan, Case C–416/10 at para. 47.Google Scholar

⁹¹ “Finally, as a supreme court, the Najvyšší súd Slovenskej republiky is even required to submit a request for a preliminary ruling to the Court of Justice when it finds that the substance of the dispute concerns a question to be resolved which comes within the scope of the first paragraph of Article 267 TFEU. The possibility of bringing, before the constitutional court of the Member State concerned, an action against the decisions of a national court, limited to an examination of a potential infringement of the rights and freedoms guaranteed by the national constitution or by an international agreement, cannot allow the view to be taken that that national court cannot be classified as a court against whose decisions there is no judicial remedy under national law within the meaning of the third paragraph of Article 267 TFEU. In the light of the foregoing, the answer to the first question is that Article 267 TFEU must be interpreted as meaning that a national court, such as the referring court, is obliged to make, of its own motion, a request for a preliminary ruling to the Court of Justice even though it is ruling on a referral back to it after its first decision was set aside by the constitutional court of the Member State concerned and even though a national rule obliges it to resolve the dispute by following the legal opinion of that latter court.” Id. Google Scholar

⁹² “The Court has concluded therefrom that the existence of a rule of national law whereby courts or tribunals against whose decisions there is a judicial remedy are bound on points of law by the rulings of a court superior to them cannot, on the basis of that fact alone, deprive the lower courts of the right provided for in Article 267 TFEU to refer questions on the interpretation of EU law to the Court of Justice (see, to that effect, Rheinmühlen-Düsseldorf, paragraphs 4 and 5, and Cartesio, paragraph 94). The lower court must be free, in particular if it considers that a higher court's legal ruling could lead it to give a judgment contrary to EU law, to refer to the Court questions which concern it (Case C-378/08 ERG and Others 2010 E.C.R. I-0000, paragraph 32).” Melki and Abdeli, Joined Cases C–188/10 and C–189/10 at para. 42.Google Scholar

⁹³ Article 61–1states, “If, during proceedings in progress before a court of law, it is claimed that a statutory provision infringes the rights and freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution, the matter may be referred by the Conseil d'État or by the Cour de Cassation to the Constitutional Council, within a determined period. An Organic Law shall determine the conditions for the application of the present article.” On this, see Fabbrini, Federico, Kelsen in Paris: France's constitutional reform and the introduction of a posteriori constitutional review of legislation, 9 German L.J., 1297 (2008).Google Scholar

⁹⁴ The saga is indeed multilevel: during a proceeding initiated by Mr. Melki and Mr. Abdeli, two Algerians, unlawfully present in France. They were arrested and put into detention after a police control carried out in an area close to the Belgian border, on the basis of Art. 78–2, p. 4, of the French Code of Criminal Procedure. The judge deciding on provisional detention decided to refer to the Court of Cassation (as we know the French Constitutional Reform gave the Court de Cassation and the Conseil d'État a role of filter of the questions raised by the lower courts) a question concerning the consistency with the French Constitution of the possibility to check the identity of persons in a border area. The referring judge had in mind Art. 88-1 of the Constitution, which reads ‘The Republic shall participate in the European Union constituted by States which have freely chosen to exercise some of their powers in common pursuant to the [Treaties]', in so far as Union law ensures the absence of internal border controls for persons. The Court de Cassation deciding on the possibility to pass the question to the French Conseil Constitutionnel, aware of the consequence on European Union law of a decision like that and doubting the mechanism of the priority of the constitutional question devised by the French Reform, raised a preliminary reference to the CJEU.Google Scholar

⁹⁵ Melki, Joined Cases C–188/10 and C–189/10 at para.22Google Scholar

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⁹⁸ Case C–210/06, Cartesio, 2008 E.C.R. I–9641.Google Scholar

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¹⁰⁰ Melki, Joined Cases C–188/10 and C–189/10 at para. 51.Google Scholar

¹⁰¹ C–314/85, Foto-Frost, 1987 E.C.R. 4199 (“It should also be observed that the priority nature of an interlocutory procedure for the review of the constitutionality of a national law, the content of which merely transposes the mandatory provisions of a European Union directive, cannot undermine the jurisdiction of the Court of Justice alone to declare an act of the European Union invalid, and in particular a directive, the purpose of that jurisdiction being to guarantee legal certainty by ensuring that EU law is applied uniformly.”).Google Scholar

¹⁰² C–457/09, Chartry, 2011 E.C.R I–00819.Google Scholar

¹⁰³ Case C–112/13, A v. B., (Sept. 11, 2014), http://curia.europa.eu/. On the differences between Melki and A v. B, see Guazzarotti, Andrea, Rinazionalizzare i diritti fondamentali? Spunti a partire da Corte di Giustizia UE, A. c. B. e altri, sent. 11 settembre 2014, C–112/13, available at www.diritticomparati.it (2014).Google Scholar

¹⁰⁴ Mangold, Case C–144/04. See Calvano, Roberta, Il caso “Mangold”: la Corte di giustizia afferma (senza dirlo) l'efficacia orizzontale di una direttiva comunitaria non scaduta?, available at www.associazionedeicostituzionalisti.it (2006).Google Scholar

¹⁰⁵ Mangold, Case C–144/04 at para. 78.Google Scholar

¹⁰⁶ Id. at para. 67.Google Scholar

¹⁰⁷ Id. at para. 74.Google Scholar

¹⁰⁸ Id. at paras. 77–78.Google Scholar

¹⁰⁹ Hatzopoulos, Vassilis, Why the Open Method of Coordination is Bad for You: A Letter to the EU, 13 Eur. L. J. 309, 337 (2007).Google Scholar

¹¹⁰ Case C–60/00, Carpenter, 2002 E.C.R. I–6279.Google Scholar

¹¹¹ Case C–71/02, Karner, 2004 E.C.R. I–3025.Google Scholar

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¹¹⁴ Dani, supra note 84.Google Scholar

¹¹⁵ Case C-555/07, Kücükdeveci, 2010 E.C.R. I–365.Google Scholar

¹¹⁶ Bundesverfassungsgericht [BVerfG] [Federal Constitutional Court] 123, 267 – Treaty of Lisbon, 2009, https://www.bundesverfassungsgericht.de/entscheidungen/es20090630_2bve000208en.html.Google Scholar

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¹¹⁸ Case C–285/98, Kreil, 2000 E.C.R. I–69.Google Scholar

¹¹⁹ Article 12a 4 states: “If, during a state of defence, the need for civilian services in the civilian health system or in stationary military hospitals cannot be met on a voluntary basis, women between the age of eighteen and fifty-five may be called upon to render such services by or pursuant to a law. Under no circumstances may they be required to render service involving the use of arms.”Google Scholar

¹²⁰ Case C–213/07, Michaniki AE v. Ethniko Simvoulio Radiotileorasis and Ipourgos Epikratias, 2008 E.C.R. I–9999.Google Scholar

¹²¹ Article 14, p. 9 provides: “The ownership, financial standing and means of financing of the media must be disclosed, as stipulated by law. The measures and restrictions necessary to ensure full media transparency and pluralism shall be specified by law. It is prohibited to concentrate control of several media of the same or different form. In particular, it is prohibited to concentrate control of more than one electronic medium of the same form, as specified by law. The status of owner, partner, main shareholder or management executive of a media undertaking shall be incompatible with the status of owner, partner, main shareholder or management executive of an undertaking which undertakes with the State or a legal person in the public sector in the broad sense to perform works or provide supplies or services. The prohibition in the previous subparagraph shall also extend to any form of intermediary, such as spouses, relatives or financially dependent persons or companies. A law shall set out the specific regulations, the sanctions (which may go as far as revocation of a radio or television station's licence and an order prohibiting the signature of, or cancelling, the contract in question), the system of supervision and the guarantees to prevent circumvention of the foregoing subparagraphs.”Google Scholar

¹²² Michaniki AE, Case C–213/07 at para. 69.Google Scholar

¹²³ On this case law, see Guastaferro, Barbara, Beyond the Exceptionalism of Constitutional Conflicts: The Ordinary Functions of the Identity Clause, 31 Y.B. Eur. L. 263 (2012).Google Scholar

¹²⁴ As we know, while in the first pillar the counter-limits bomb never exploded (and this might be seen as a confirmation of the particular strength of the interpretative position of the CJEU in this context), the third pillar knew some episodes of tension between the Constitutional Courts and the CJEU: the decisions of the Polish (Trybunał konstytucyjny, P 1/05, available at www.trybunal.gov.pl/eng/index.htm) and German (BVerfG, 2 BvR 2236/04, available at www.bundesverfassungsgericht.de/enl) Constitutional Courts (but also see the decisions of the Cypriot, 294/2005, available at www.cylaw.org and Czech judges Ústavní Soud, PI. ÚS 66/04, available at http:// http://www.usoud.cz/), which have recalled the question of the ultimate barriers in the field of the European arrest warrant. Jan Komárek, European constitutionalism and the European Arrest Warrant: In search of the limits of contrapunctual principles, Jean Monnet Working Paper, 10/05 available at http://econpapers.repec.org/paper/erpjeanmo/p0250.htm (2005).Google Scholar

¹²⁵ Case C–399/09, Landtová, 2011 E.C.R. I–05573.Google Scholar

¹²⁶ Id. at para. 49.Google Scholar

¹²⁷ Ústavní soud [Czech Constitutional Court], judgment of 31 January, PI. ÚS 5/12, Slovak Pensions XVII. The English translation is available at http:// http://www.usoud.cz/.Google Scholar

¹²⁸ Bundesverfassungsgericht [BVerfG] [Federal Constitutional Court], 30 June 2009, 2 BvE 2/08, www.bundesverfassungsgericht.de/en.Google Scholar

¹²⁹ Bundesverfassungsgericht [BVerfG] [Federal Constitutional Court], 26 Aug. 2010, 2 BvR 2261/06, www.bundesverfassungsgericht.de/en.Google Scholar

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¹³¹ Tzanakopoulos, Antonios, The Solange Argument as a Justification for Disobeying the Security Council in the Kadi Judgments, in Kadi on Trial: A Multifaceted Analysis of the Kadi Trial 121 (Matej Avbelj, Filippo Fontanelli & Giuseppe Martinico eds., 2014). See also Gattini, Andrea, Joined Cases C-402/05 P & 415/05 P, Yassin Abdullah Kadi, Al Barakaat International Foundation v. Council and Commission, judgment of the Grand Chamber of 3 September 2008, 46 Common Mkt. L. Rev. 213, 234 (2009); Gordillo, supra note 31, at 235–57, 311–13.Google Scholar

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¹³⁴ On this, see Fabbrini, Federico, The Euro-Crisis and the Courts: Judicial Review and the Political Process in Comparative Perspective, available at http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2328060 (2013); Delledonne, Giacomo, Financial Constitutions in the EU: From the Political to the Legal Constitution?, Sant'Anna Legal Studies (STALS) Research Paper 5/2012, http://stals.sssup.it/files/Delledonne%20Stals%205%202012.pdf (2012).Google Scholar

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¹³⁷ Id. at 3.Google Scholar

¹³⁸ Id. 10.Google Scholar

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