Whilst the European Union’s aim of achieving an ‘ever closer Union’ is not an objective of EEA cooperation, homogeneity demands that we follow the same path: as the Union gets ever closer, so too does EEA cooperation, in light of the demands of the fundamental principle of homogeneity. This is particularly well demonstrated by looking at developments in the field of the free movement of persons. The case law of the Court of Justice of the European Free Trade Association (EFTA Court) in this field shows that in situations where homogeneity is put to the test, there seems little to suggest that a more national sovereignty-friendly approach has been adopted than under EU law. Notwithstanding the integral differences between the EU and EEA legal constructs, the EFTA Court has proven highly adept at keeping pace with EU developments in the field through a number of bold and creative interpretations of EEA law, and by using different tools to arrive at uniform conclusions.

The article attempts to examine the structures of the EFTA Court in order to gain insights into its effectiveness. For this purpose the article relies on a rational system approach developed within social sciences to improve understanding the performance of public organisations and calibrated to examine international courts by the ERC Project Researching Conditions for Effective International Adjudication. Under the conceptual and analytical framework advanced by the Effectiveness Project the article, therefore, examines the main structures of the EFTA Court: for example, the Court's budget, jurisdictional rules, judicial independence and main legal doctrines. The article will also, in relation to some aspects, attempt to conduct a qualitative assessment of how some of these features relate to the effectiveness of the Court.