In the name of the European Union, the Member States and/or the European citizens?

Abstract

In the well-known words of Judge Pescatore, the Court of Justice of the – then – European Communities had “une certaine idée de l’Europe” (“a certain idea of Europe”).1 The Court played a major role in the pursuit of that idea during the early years of the process of European integration. By virtue of the doctrine of direct effect,2 another former member of that Court added, the latter “[took] Community law out of the hands of the politicians and bureaucrats and [gave] it to the people”3. The Court’s selfperception was that of a Court embodied in a “new European Volksgeist”4, acting as the “‘conscience’ of the peoples of Europe”5. Was the Court then deciding in the name of the (Member States’ or Union’s) citizens? My contribution shall address this very question in the light of the (recent) debate on the Court’s (democratic) legitimacy. Legitimacy can be defined as “the quality of a body that leads people to accept its authority”6. Incontestably, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) holds and exercises wide ranging judicial powers, which