Editorial Comments: EU law between common values and collective feelings

Abstract

Over the last decade, the European Court of Justice has breathed new life into the old notion of autonomy of the EC/EU legal order. This was the case in Kadi, in Opinion 2/13 on the accession of the EU to the European Convention on Human Rights, and this was recently reconfirmed in Achmea. These decisions convey the message that, in face of adversity, EU law is capable of relying on its own system of principles and values. In contrast, in a line of cases starting with Dano and Alimanovic, the Court has reacted to a sensitive political and economic environment by making EU law responsive to what was considered to be a pressing societal demand.2 It is as though, in this particular context, respect was owed to collective feelings prevailing in Member States' societies and also to shifting moods. This raises the question of the extent to which this curious oscillation between common values and collective feelings is capable of becoming one of the defining features of our current Union and its law. (First paragraph)