A Powerless Court? The European Court of Justice and the EU Common Foreign and Security Policy

Abstract

In at least three different ways, the Treaty of Lisbon reformulates the European Court of Justice’s jurisdiction in relation to the EU Common Foreign and Security Policy. First, it makes it possible for the Court, albeit within limits, to exercise judicial control with regard to certain CFSP acts, thus abolishing the policy’s conventional immunity from judicial supervision. Second, it recalibrates the Court’s role in patrolling the borders between EU (external) competences based on the TFEU and the CFSP, turning it into the guarantor of the latter’s integrity. Third, the Treaty generalises the Court’s capacity to enforce the principles underpinning the Union’s legal order. The paper examines these three levels of jurisdiction in turn.