Giuseppe Martinico and Oreste Pollicino (eds), The National Judicial Treatment of the ECHR and EU Laws. A Comparative Constitutional Perspective

Abstract

This volume collects the essays presented at the workshop entitled �National Judges and Supranational Laws: On the Effective Application of EU Law and the ECHR�, hosted by the Sant�Anna School of Advanced Studies (Pisa) on 15 and 16 January 2010. The workshop gathered 21 scholars from across Europe to discuss two fundamental questions: whether domestic judiciaries handle European Union (EU) law and the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR) in a similar manner; and whether national courts facilitate a convergence in the implementation of EU law and the ECHR in domestic legal orders. In order to answer these questions the participants were asked to review their national legal systems in the light of three parameters, each containing a complex array of specific questions. Under the �legal� parameter the authors were required, inter alia, to illustrate the status of EU law and the ECHR in the domestic hierarchy of sources and to explain whether there have been amendments of national constitutions or statutes following a decision of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) or the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR). Under the �judicial� parameter the participants were asked, inter alia, to examine the case law of national courts (both constitutional and ordinary courts) in order to appraise whether special status is granted to EU law and the ECHR and to identify the effects of the judgments of the ECJ and of the ECtHR on national legal systems. Moreover, the contributors were invited to describe the solutions devised by national judges (if any) to handle conflicts between, on the one hand, the European legal orders and national laws and, on the other hand, between the ECJ and the ECtHR and domestic courts. Finally, under the �academic� parameter the authors were asked to explain what the understanding of EC and �