Judicial review in EC law - some reflections of the origins and the actual legal situation

摘要

The extent to which judicial review is granted and effectively exercised is a key element for the evaluation of any modern legal system. The principle of judicial review provides a basic protection for individuals and prevents those exercising public functions from abusing their powers to the disadvantage of the public. During the last quarter of the twentieth century, the circumstances in which the courts in the United Kingdom have been prepared to intervene in order to provide relief for unlawful administrative action have expanded in spectacular fashion. The incorporation in the UK of the European Convention on Human Rights on 2 October 2000 in the UK marks a significant change in this field. It is no surprise that also European Community law has striven to establish adequate and sufficient judicial review from its very beginning. It follows from the basic concepts of the Community law that as a new legal order the pattern and the main principles from which it was evolving from are those of the common legal and constitutional traditions of the Member States. For judicial review in EC law, the method which Community Law was to follow became clear in one of the first cases of the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice. In the famous Algera case the Court based the need for proper judicial review in Community law on the prohibition of denial of justice. In the French Civil Code, there is an express guarantee against denial of justice but this is also an inherent principle of the legal orders of the other Member States of the European Community.