Law I / The European Union Legal Order
Practice question · Match the pairs

Match each judgment of the Court of Justice to the doctrine it established.

  • Van Gend en Loos
  • Costa v ENEL
  • Simmenthal
  • Francovich
  • State liability in damages for failure to implement a directive
  • Primacy: a later national statute cannot prevail over Community law
  • Direct effect: individuals may invoke Community law before national courts
  • The national judge must disapply the conflicting national provision
Hints
  1. The two earliest judgments established the two structural doctrines.
  2. One of the four gives the citizen a remedy where invoking the directive itself is not available.
Show the answer
  • Van Gend en Loos Direct effect: individuals may invoke Community law before national courts
  • Costa v ENEL Primacy: a later national statute cannot prevail over Community law
  • Simmenthal The national judge must disapply the conflicting national provision
  • Francovich State liability in damages for failure to implement a directive
Why

Read as a sequence they are four answers to one question: what is a European rule worth to an individual? First it can be invoked; then it beats a national statute; then the ordinary judge must act on that without waiting; and finally, where none of that helps, the defaulting state pays for the loss.

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