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The National Judge as an Ordinary Judge of International Law? Invocability of Treaty Law in National Courts

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 April 2015

SAÏDA EL BOUDOUHI
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Abstract

Since the Simmenthal case of the ECJ, the national judge has been coined the ‘ordinary judge of EU law’, meaning that this judge has the primary responsibility for ensuring the effectiveness of EU law through different techniques. While there has been a large amount of research on the role of domestic courts in relation to international law, the question of whether the domestic judge could also be characterized as the ‘ordinary judge of international law’ in the sense the phrase is used regarding EU law has never been raised. This article identifies the contents of the phrase in the context of EU law in order to test it against international law. It undertakes this by transposing the different types of invocability – direct effect, invocability of consistent interpretation, invocability of damages, and invocability of exclusion – which set the national judge as a primary judge of EU law, to international law before domestic judges. While the analysis relies mainly on French case law relating to international law, comparisons are drawn, where relevant, between the case law of this jurisdiction and that of other jurisdictions in order to establish a general trend. This permits the conclusion that, while the French courts remain reluctant to ensure the effectiveness of international law through the adoption of the different techniques of invocability, other domestic judges behave as ordinary judges of international law in a way that is very similar to the way the national judges treat EU law.

Keywords

consistent interpretationdirect applicabilitydomestic judgeinvocabilityordinary judge
Type
INTERNATIONAL LAW AND PRACTICE
Information
Leiden Journal of International Law , Volume 28 , Issue 2 , June 2015 , pp. 283 - 301
Copyright
Copyright © Foundation of the Leiden Journal of International Law 2015 

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References

1 Case 70/77, Simmenthal SpA v. Amministrazione delle finanze, [1978] ECR 629 at 2785.

2 The Court only used this expression in its Opinion 1/09 of 8 March 2011 on the project of creation of a unified European patent litigation system, para. 80.

3 It may be completed with other forms of invocability which are not transposable to international law, such as the invocability of prevention, the reference for a preliminary ruling, or the interim protection of applicants.

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11 Jurisdiction of the Courts of Danzig (Pecuniary Claims of Danzig Railway Officials who have passed into the Polish Service, against the Polish Railways Administration), Advisory Opinion, PCIJ Rep. Series B No. 15.

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13 Ibid.

14 Ibid.

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29 X. Domino and A. Bretonneau, ‘Les aléas de l’effet direct’, (2012) AJDA, 936. It should be noted that some provisions, namely paras. 2, 3, and 7 of Art. 6 of the Aarhus Convention are of direct effect.

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31 CE 7 November 2012, No. 350313.

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41 For instance, even though Italy has a formally dualist system, the measure for the incorporation of the treaty into the national legal order requires the adoption of a standpoint on the directly applicable character of its provisions.

42 The Czech Constitution provides for a particular regime for treaties on human rights which are not subject to an obligation of incorporation for the purposes of applicability.

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51 Section 233: ‘When interpreting any legislation, every court must prefer any reasonable interpretation of the legislation that is consistent with international law over any alternative interpretation that is inconsistent with international law’. The system may be characterized as mainly dualist because the concept of self-executing treaties ‘has thus far remained a dead letter in the practice of South African courts’ (de Wet, E., ‘South Africa’, in Shelton, D. (ed.), International Law and Domestic Legal Systems, (2011), 567 at 574Google Scholar).

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54 A (FC) v. Secretary of State for the Home Department (Conjoined Appeals) (2005) UKHL 71.

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57 State v. Metropolitan Police Commissioner, 60 DLR (2008) 660; ILDC 1410 (BD 2008).

58 People's Union for Civil Liberties v. Union of India (1997) 125 ILR 510. In another case, the Supreme Court held that international declarations and conventions ‘hold an important persuasive value’ and that consequently, they may be used for the interpretation of Acts of Parliament (Vishaka v. State of Rajasthan, Supreme Court decision, AIR 1997 SC 3011 (1997), 13 August 1997, ILDC 1177 (IN 2007)).

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62 Case 91/92, Faccini Dori v. Recreb Srl, [1994] ECR 3325.

63 Bundesgerichtshof, 24 October 1996, Brasserie du Pêcheur, III ZR 127/91; (1997) 1 CMLR 971; House of Lords, R v. Secretary of State for Transport, ex parte Factortame Ltd and ors (No. 5), (2000) 1 AC 524, 28 October 1999; or, in Spain, Audiencia Nacional, Recurso contencioso-administrativo, No. 365/2001, RJCA/634, 7 May 2002.

64 CE, ass., 28 February 1992, Société Arizona Tobacco Products, No. 87753, Lebon, 81; CE, ass., 30 October 1996, Société Jacques Dangeville, No. 141043, Lebon, 558.

65 CE, ass., 8 February 2007, No. 279522, Lebon, 78

66 J.-C. Bonichot, ‘Le point de vue d’un juge de l’Union’, (2013) AJDA, 396.

67 E. Lagrange, ‘L’efficacité des normes internationales concernant la situation des personnes privées dans les ordres juridiques internes’, RCADI, 2011, 523. The author relies on the opinion of Advocate General Derepas in this case. He had suggested that the Conseil d’État limit open the liability regime only for directly applicable provisions.

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69 J. Sirinelli, Les transformations du droit administratif par le droit de l’Union européenne (2011), 527–8.

70 The Gardedieu case itself involved the ECHR and therefore exceeded the strict perimeter of EU law which benefits from a guaranteed extrinsic effectiveness.

71 T. A. Bordeaux, 5 November 2008, M. S. Bouamine, No. 0701796 (invoking Art. 2 of the ECHR for information on the effects of smoking; T. A. Lille, 10 November 2009, M. Camuset, No. 0702487 (directive of Community law which had not been transposed into domestic law).

72 Broyelle, C., ‘L’influence du droit communautaire sur le régime de la responsabilité administrative’, in Auby, J.-B. and de la Rochère, J. Dutheil (eds.), Droit administratif européen (2007), 1032–3Google Scholar.

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74 Jogi v. Voges, 480 F.3d 822 (7th Cir. 2007) (Jogi II).

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78 P. Craig, Administrative Law (2003), 934.

79 M. Emberland, note on A v. Royal Norwegian Ministry of Justice, Decision of Supreme Court, Case No. HR-2005-01690-P, Norwegian Supreme Court Gazette (Rt, Retstidende) 2005, 1365; ILDC 261 (No. 2005).

80 Advocate General Y. Bot produced a synthesis of the case law which tends towards the ‘disconnection’ of invocability of substitution and invocability of exclusion Case C-555/07, Kücükdeveci v. Swedex GmbH & Co., [2010] ECR 365, Opinion, para. 64.

81 Ibid.

82 See, however, the Perreux case which deprives this technique of part of its usefulness for EU law. CE, ass., 30 October 2009, Perreux, No. 298348, Lebon.

83 Opinion on CE, sect., 23 avr. 1997, GISTI, (1997) RFDA, 585.

84 Cour d’arbitrage, 22 July 2003, No. 106/2003, B4.2. See also, in the same direction, the case of 19 May 1994, No. 40/94, APM., June 1994, 109.

85 Conseil d’Etat (Belgique), Judgments of 6 September 1989, No. 32.989 and 32.990, RACE 1989, 66 and 71 (on Art. 13.2 on the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, relating to the access to primary education)

86 H. Bribosia, ‘Applicabilité directe et primauté des traités internationaux et du droit communautaire’, (1996) RBDI 1, 46–7.

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88 Case C-70/87, [1989] ECR 1781.

89 Case C-69/89, [1991] ECR 2069.

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