Nic Shuibhne, Niamh

Scott, Andrew

Horsley, Thomas

Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC)

2012-09-13T13:42:44Z

2012-09-13T13:42:44Z

2012-06-26

This thesis explores subsidiarity‟s untapped potential as an enforceable legal principle in EU law. To date, discussion of the principle‟s function in European integration remains overly focused on its effect as a restraint on the Union legislature. In the first part of the thesis, I seek to challenge this entrenched view. Specifically, I question whether or not the subsidiarity principle could and, ultimately, should apply also as a brake on the interpretative authority of the Court of Justice. Arguing that subsidiarity does indeed have a role to play in this context, I then turn to examine, in the second part of the thesis, the implications of this conclusion for the Court‟s interpretation of the scope of the Treaty provisions guaranteeing intra-EU movement. In the final analysis, I argue that the subsidiarity principle necessitates an adjustment of the Court‟s current approach to defining the concept of an obstacle to intra-EU movement. This adjustment isolates and protects an appropriate sphere of Member State regulatory competence from the Court‟s scrutiny at Union level. In so doing, it ensures that, in the process of establishing and managing a functioning internal market, Member States retain some space to breathe.

http://hdl.handle.net/1842/6390

en

The University of Edinburgh

T. Horsley, 'The Concept of an Obstacle to Intra-EU Capital Movement in EU Law' in N. Nic Shuibhne and L. Gormley (Eds.) From Single Market to Economic Union: Essays in Honour of John A. Usher (OUP, 2012).

T. Horsley, 'Anyone for Keck?' Case Comment (2009) 46(6) CMLRev 2001

subsidiarity

European Court of Justice

EU Free Movement Law

internal market

Space to breathe: subsidiarity, the Court of Justice and EU Free Movement Law

Thesis or Dissertation

Doctoral

PhD Doctor of Philosophy