Refine
Document Type
- Article (4)
- Working Paper (3)
Language
- English (7)
Is part of the Bibliography
- no (7)
Keywords
- Ireland (2)
- Brexit (1)
- Domestic legal systems (1)
- EU Law (1)
- EU law (1)
- Europeanisation (1)
- National courts (1)
- Scotland (1)
- national legal systems (1)
Irish Courts are not exclusively national courts. They form an integral part of a pan-European Union legal network where domestic courts are increasingly viewed, at least by the Court of Justice of the European Union (EUCJ) as European Courts. Just as national courts are interwoven in this pan-European judicial structure, domestic laws too are interwoven with EU Law with the state under an obligation to give effect to EU law. Interpretation, including resolution of conflicts between domestic and EU norms is the responsibility of national courts. Where interpretation is unclear, the EUCJ can be approached under the preliminary reference procedure, the EUCJ being the sole authoritative interpreter of EU Law. While the role of the EUCJ a-top this pan-European network gives it the unique ability, via its case law, to affect the legislative and policy choices at the national level that relate to EU law, it conversely also has overseen national courts, including those from smaller Member States, playing an unusually significant role in the constitutional developments of the European Union itself.
This article is the first to undertake a comparative statistical study examining the application and trends in European Union ('EU') law before the Scottish and Irish courts over a ten year period from 2009 – 2018. The paper poses the question, how does European integration impact on the domestic legal systems of EU Member States due to the increasing volume, and significance, of cases where EU law is raised and applied within domestic legal systems? It highlights similarities and differences between the two jurisdictions and the fields of law where EU law has been most prominent. The research, focussing on civil law matters, is of particular relevance in light of Brexit. It highlights the potential difficulties implicit in attempting to unpick over 40 years of assimilation of EU law and principles into Scots law and lays the groundwork for a further comparative study after another 10 years on the extent of the impact of Brexit in Scotland and Ireland.
The discussion paper below sets out the preliminary stages of a project we are working on examining EU Law in the Irish courts. The first stage of the project is an analysis of the cases over the last 10 years (1.1.2009 - 31.12.2018) with an expectation over the medium term of more substantive and doctrinal analysis of how EU Law is applied by the courts.
Irish Courts are not exclusively national courts. They form an integral part of a pan-European Union legal network where domestic courts are increasingly viewed, at least by the Court of Justice of the European Union (EUCJ) as European Courts. Just as national courts are interwoven in this pan-European judicial structure, domestic laws too are interwoven with EU Law with the state under an obligation to give effect to EU law. Interpretation, including resolution of conflicts between domestic and EU norms is the responsibility of national courts. Where interpretation is unclear, the EUCJ can be approached under the preliminary reference procedure, the EUCJ being the sole authoritative interpreter of EU Law. While the role of the EUCJ a-top this pan-European network gives it the unique ability, via its case law, to affect the legislative and policy choices at the national level that relate to EU law, it conversely also has overseen national courts, including those from smaller Member States, playing an unusually significant role in the constitutional developments of the European Union itself.
The EU Digital Service Acts signals a move away from self-regulation towards co-regulation of social media platforms within the European Union. To address online harms and rising platform power the DSA clarifies responsibilities of platforms and outlines a new technology regulatory framework to increase oversight. One key oversight instrument constitutes Article 40 of the DSA, which lays out data access for vetted researchers, who add value to regulators and the broader public as creators of knowledge, educators, advisors, innovators, and watchdogs. Currently, the EU Commission and national governments make important decisions regarding Digital Service Coordinators (DSCs) that play a key role in implementation. Based on expertise on European public administration and political science we lay out key challenges and success factors of DSCs that will play a role in promoting successful cooperation between DSCs and researchers. We provide three recommendations: First, we recommend to strengthen transfer of scientific knowledge into policy-making by processing publicly accessible publications within public administrative bodies. To this end, capacities of DSCs need to be increased. In addition, we also point towards the database of vetted researchers collected by the Board of DSCs as important resource in order to strengthen knowledge transfer. Second, the DSC network requires agile institutions with fast response time in order to enable researchers to play a constructive role in implementation. This also includes institutional procedures between DSCs and the Intermediary Body and Data Protection Agencies. To avoid delay in implementation agile institution-building needs to start now. Finally, institutional safeguards will help to avoid strategic choice of companies of the DSC of establishment. At the same time, the Irish DSC's capacity should be strengthened compared to other national DSCs since most large intermediary services providers have their European headquarters in Ireland.