The Vicissitudes of Life at the Coalface: Remedies and Procedures for Enforcing Union Law Before National Courts

The chapter discusses the evolution of European law concerning national remedies and procedures involved in enforcing EU rights and obligations, combining an exposition of the case law with a critical discussion of the mainstream scholarship. EU law on national remedies is traditionally embodied in the equivalence-effectiveness test, whose jurisprudence is systematized into three periods of varying scrutiny. After the Lisbon Treaty, it is pictured as increasingly based on the principle of effective judicial protection, Articles 19 TEU and 47 EUCFR, suggesting a possible ‘human-rights-oriented twist’ in the field. Adopting a critical stand, the chapter shows how the traditional systematization misses additional strands of cases and facets to the Rewe-effectiveness, while the substantial implications of the latest trends are still under development.