The Saga May Continue: On the Intricate Dialogue Between the Constitutional Court of Romania and the Court of Justice of the European Union

Károly Benke

doi:10.47078/2023.2.9-40

Károly Benke PhD., First assistant magistrate, Constitutional Court of Romania, Coordinator of the Constitutional Law Department of the Romanian National Institute for Magistracy

DOI: https://doi.org/10.47078/2023.2.9-40

Keywords: judicial dialogue, constitutional courts, constitutional review, supremacy of the Constitution, counter-limits doctrine, national constitutional identity, ultra vires review, national legal order, primacy of European Union law

Abstract

This study tracks the evolution of the jurisprudence of the Constitutional Court of Romania (CC) vis-à-vis the complex relationship between national law and European Union (EU) law. In this study, the decisions issued by the CC were identified, examined, and grouped chronologically, and based on how the Court related to EU law, its jurisprudential evolution was periodised. This relationship is reflected in the jurisprudence of the CC and of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU). If this relationship was initially one of collaboration, subsequent jurisprudential tensions arose between the two courts, especially in terms of reconciling the principle of the supremacy of the Constitution with that of the priority of application of EU law. The doctrine of counter-limits, embraced by the CC, according to the German model, has a special role to play in this equation. This study brings to fore all these aspects in an exhaustive way and tries to provide a truthful picture of how the national legal order interacts with that of the EU through the lens of the jurisprudence of both, the CC and CJEU.

References

Amalfitano, C., Pollicio, O. (2018) ‘Two Courts, two Languages? The Taricco Saga Ends on a Worrying Note’ Verfassungsblog [Online]. Available at: https://verfassungsblog.de/two-courts-two-languages-the-taricco-saga-ends-on-a-worrying-note/ (Accessed: 15 July 2023).

Arena, A. (2019) ‘From an Unpaid Electricity Bill to the Primacy of EU Law: Gian Galeazzo Stendardi and the Making of Costa v. ENEL’, European Journal of International Law, 30(3), pp. 1017–1037; https://doi.org/10.1093/ejil/chz056.

Bogdandy, A. (2022) ‘To be a constitutional judge in the European society – On responsibilities and styles’, The Constitutional Court Bulletin, 24(1), pp. 13–15.

Enache, M. (2021) ‘De la redactarea la exegeza Constituției României din 1991 – experiențe și reflecții’ in Dorneanu, V. et al. (eds.) Patrimoniul constituțional și valorile democratice, Bucharest: Hamangiu Publishing, pp. 77–98.

Enache, M., Titirișcă, C. (2021) ‘References for Preliminary Rulings Submitted in a priori Constitutional Review. Insights from Romania in Light of Decision No.137 of 13 March 2019 of the Romanian Constitutional Court’, European Constitutional Law Review, 17(1), pp. 107–129; https://doi.org/10.1017/S1574019621000122.

Iancu, B. (2022) ‘Goat, Cabbage and Wolf’ Verfassungsblog [Online]. Available at: https://verfassungsblog.de/goat-cabbage-and-wolf/ (Accessed:15 July 2023).

Iancu, B. (2023) ‘Pe aici nu se trece - Identitate și prioritate la București – Varșovia – Karlsruhe – Roma - Madrid - Luxemburg’ in Dima B., Perju, V. (eds.) După 30 de ani – Justiția constituțională în România, Bucharest: Humanitas Publishing, pp. 272–298.

Lenaerts, K. (1990) ‘Constitutionalism and the Many Faces of Federalism’, The American Journal of Comparative Law, 38(2), pp. 205–263; https://doi.org/10.2307/840100.

Mezzetti, L. (2007) Diritto costituzionale – Casebook – La Costituzione italiana annotata con la giurisprudenza della Corte Costituzionale’. Napoli: Esselibri-Simone Publishing.

Paulus, A. (2019) ‘The relationship between national constitutional identity and the principle of predominance of the law of treaties. A German Constitutionalist view’ in Dorneanu, V., Krupenschi, C.M. (eds.) The national constitutional identity in the context of European law. Bucharest: Hamangiu Publishing, pp. 29–36.

Pivniceru, M-M., Benke, K. (2015) ‘Constitutional Court of Romania: Constitutionalization of the Obligations under International Treaties and European Union binding Acts’, Vienna Journal on International Constitutional Law, 9(3), pp. 451–456; https://doi.org/10.1515/icl-2015-0310.

Posner, R. A. (2021) Cum gândesc judecătorii. Chișinău: Institutul Național al Justiției.

Puskás, V.Z., Benke, K. (2017) ‘The regulatory role of judicial activism. The experience of the Constitutional Court of Romania – an ongoing evolution’ in Constitutional Court of Latvia (ed.) Judicial activism of the Constitutional Court in a Democratic State. Riga, pp. 419–433.

Safta, M. (2022) ‘Justiţia constituţională europeană. Prea mult drept constituţional în Uniunea Europeană?’ Juridice Essentials [Online]. Available at: https://www.juridice.ro/essentials/5257/justitia-constitutionala-europeana-prea-mult-drept-constitutional-in-uniunea-europeana (Accessed: 15 July 2023).

Slaughter, A-M. (2000) ‘Judicial globalization’, Virginia Journal of International Law, 40(1103), pp. 1103–1124.

Sulyok, T., Dorneanu, V. (2022) ‘Constitutional courts are the keystones of national ethos’ Hungarian Conservative [Online]. Available at: https://www.hungarianconservative.com/articles/philosophy/constitutional-courts-are-the-keystones-of-national-ethos (Accessed: 15 July 2023).

Toader, T., Safta, M. (2013) ‘Dialogul dintre Curtea Constituțională a României și Curtea de Justiție a Uniunii Europene’, Dreptul, 12/2013, pp. 129–162.

Trócsányi, L., Csink, L. (2008) ‘Alkotmány v. közösségi jog: az Alkotmánybíróság helye az Európai Unióban’, Jogtudományi Közlöny, 63(2), pp. 63–69.

Varga, A. (2019) ‘Determining the content of constitutional identity – regulatory and case-law enshrinement’ in Dorneanu, V., Krupenschi, C.M. (eds.) The national constitutional identity in the context of European law. Bucharest: Hamangiu Publishing, pp. 20–28.