Regulating Local Border Traffic in the European Union

Abstract

This short paper examines a landmark case related to the functioning of the EU local border traffic regime (under Regulation (EU) No 1931/2006), decided by the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) (Shomodi – C-254/11). The Shomodi case represents a good example for the simultaneous applicability of EU law, international law and domestic (Hungarian) law to a specific situation (‘cumulation of norms’). It aims at understanding the relationship and interactions between these different kinds of legal norms in an individual case as well as to identify the applicable law in situ. Furthermore, this study tries to show the complexity and internal diversity of sources of the EU legal corpus itself as well. This peculiar feature, as shown in the article, strongly influences the interpretation and implementation of the EU rules on local border traffic.