Editorial Comments, Ultra vires – has the Bundesverfassungsgericht shown its teeth?

Series Title
Series Details Vol.50, No.4, August 2013, p925-929
Publication Date August 2013
ISSN 0165-0750
Content Type

Publishers Abstract:
Some eight weeks after the Court of Justice handed down its Akerberg Fransson judgment, the First Senate of the German Constitutional Court (GCC), on Apr 24, 2013, issued its decision on the establishment of the anti-terrorism database, with a remarkable reference to the Akerberg Fransson judgment. The GCC held that -- in order to enhance a harmonious cooperation between the two courts -- the Akerberg Fransson judgment should not be understood and applied in such a way that the provisions of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights have a binding effect on the Member States whenever a measure of a Member State may have some material connection with the abstract scope of Union law or may have some effect on it. The GCC made the point that the Akerberg Fransson judgment should not be given a reading that would amount to an evident ultra vires act by the ECJ or to an infringement of national fundamental rights in such a way that the identity of the national constitutional order would be put into question.

Source Link http://www.kluwerlawonline.com/index.php?area=Journals
Countries / Regions ,