'Faraway, so close!' The principle of effective judicial protection and the constitutional traditions common to the Member States

Under the aegis of the FIDE 2021 Topic ‘National Courts and the Enforcement of EU Law’, this piece offers insights into the role of constitutional traditions common to the Member States in shaping the EU general principle of effective judicial protection.
This principle ensures that EU law is effectively enforced via a series of procedural guarantees, including the principle of judicial independence and the right to access to courts. Since the Johnston case, it is settled case law that this principle stems from the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR) and the constitutional traditions common to the Member States. While the influence of the ECHR over the development of EU effective judicial protection has been extensively explored in the literature, less attention was paid to the impact of constitutional traditions from the Member States.

Nevertheless, studying the influence of common constitutional traditions over the EU principle of effective judicial protection allows reflection on the relationship between the EU and the national legal orders: the EU is an autonomous legal system, but is inevitably shaped by the legal concepts and traditions originating from the Member States.

To explore these issues, this Long Read focuses on the use of common constitutional traditions in the EU case law, primarily in Opinions of Advocates General (AGs), concerning the EU principle of effective judicial protection.