The Principle of Legal Certainty as a Principle of Economic Efficiency

Abstract

Legal certainty, a feature of the rule of law, constitutes a requirement for the operational necessities of market interactions. But, the compatibility of the principle of legal certainty with ideals such as liberalism and free market economy must not lead to the hastened conclusion that therefore the principle of legal certainty would be compatible and tantamount to the principle of economic efficiency.In this paper, we adopt a pragmatic approach by scrutinizing the efficiency rationale of one of the most fundamental principles of EU law – the principle of legal certainty. The importance of the EU principle of legal principle, it will be argued, pares down to its economic relevance inasmuch as its legalistic importance.In economic parlance, the EU principle of legal certainty, it will be demonstrated, has emerged and plays a fundamental role in the ECJ case-law due to its economic optimality for market actors.