Member States Liability for Legislative Injustice National Procedural Autonomy and the Principle of Equivalence; Going too far in Transportes Urbanos?

Abstract

This article analyses the impact that case Transportes Urbanos might have in the thorny scenario of State liability for legislative injustice, particularly in Spain. After giving a an overview of the legal context that triggered this ECJ preliminary ruling, it analyses the answer given by the ECJ to the Spanish Supreme Court in terms of the principle of equivalence, and also addresses the question of whether an in-depth analysis of the very different positions that the Constitution and EU law have in the Spanish legal order could have justified a different solution. Finally, it considers to what extent the conjugation of the ECJ judgment and the Spanish Supreme Court doctrine on State liability for damages caused by the legislature give rise to spill-over effects and to new difficulties and dilemmas.