Browsing by Author "Stiber, Niina"

The Direct Effect doctrine, originally established by the European Court of Justice (ECJ) in the case of C-26/62 Van Gend en Loos [1963], is of foundational importance to the Union law. The horizontal direct effect of the Union law i.e. a private individual’s right to rely on Union law directly in a national court against another private party is of growing importance due to the judicial activism of the ECJ. The Union’s constitutional development from a market based economic Union towards a citizenship based Union has brought the fundamental rights protection to the centrum of the Union law. The ECJ has through its judicial activism systemically interpreted Union law towards the direction that gives the best possible protection to the fundamental rights. The general principles of Union law are underlying and foundational principles of Union law on which the Charter of Fundamental Rights of European Union has been based on. The ECJ has recognized the horizontal direct effect of the general principle of non-discrimination on grounds of age in the case of C-144/04 Mangold [2005] ECR I-9981 which has faced criticism. For example, the fact that the transposition time of the Directive 2000/78/EC had not been expired at the time of the infringement, the legal certainty of the Union law, legitimate expectations of the parties, the prohibition of horizontal effect of the directives, the existence of an underlying general principle of non-discrimination on grounds of age and the scope of Union law in the light of the Article 51 (1) of the Charter have been questioned. However, the ECJ has reconfirmed its approach in the case of C-555/07 Kücükdeveci [2010] ECR I-365 and referred directly to the Article 21 (1) of the Charter of Fundamental Rights laying down the principle of non-discrimination. This reflects the importance of the primary law status of the Charter achieved by the Treaty of Lisbon. It reflects the new possibility for individuals to invoke general principles of Union law in horizontal situations due to the fact that the Charter promotes the legitimacy of the fundamental rights. It is unclear whether this approach taken by the ECJ can be extended to other grounds of discrimination. This Master’s Thesis describes the case-law and researches these problematic questions arousing from the case-law regarding the horizontal direct effect of the principle of non-discrimination on grounds of age. Similarly, it analyses whether the Union has exceeded its competence in these cases and how the Article 51 (1) of the Charter should be interpreted in the light of the ECJ’s case-law.