Abstract:
In addition to the immense number of judgements handed down by the CJEU in the context of the rule of law crisis, the CJEU delivered the Repubblika case on 20 April 2021, in which it established a new principle, which I call the European Constitutional non-regression principle. Though the judgement is of enormous constitutional importance, it went almost unnoticed.
In this fulminant line of the CJEU’s case law, which started with the judgement on the salary cuts of Portuguese judges from 2018 onwards, one can witness the CJEU’s attempt to put a stop to the dismantling of values of the rule of law or democracy in some Member States.
The presentation will be dedicated to the conceptualization of the genuine European non-regression principle. It will be examined how the CJEU tends to understand the concept of non-regression and how it can or should be developed in detail. Therefore, questions like the absolute or relative understanding of the non-regression principle or the relevant temporal reference point will be explored.
Furthermore, it will be given a glimpse into the structure of the last chapter, which will be crucial for the assessment and critical discussion of the non-regression principle. Here, questions of how to judge the non-regression principle regarding its use and functions through different, partly intra-disciplinary lenses will be discussed.
Participants are invited to take a look at the two following cases: Case Repubblika, C-896/19 (in particular para. 63-65), which was the ‘founding case’ where the non-regression principle was established; and Case régime disciplinaire de juges C-791/19 (para. 112-113), which was the case where the non-regression principle was used as a concrete yardstick after Repubblika.
About the speaker:
Lena Kaiser is a visiting Ph.D. researcher from Humboldt-University of Berlin. She holds a law degree from Westfälische Wilhems University of Münster (2022). In his doctoral project, Lena aims to conceptualize the non-regression principle in European Union Law, while also looking into other legal orders and examining it through different, inter-disciplinary lenses.