The German Constitutional Court's Friendliness towards European Law : on the judgment of Bundesverfassungsgericht over the Ratifi cation of the Treaty of Lisbon

Abstract

Novel features of the VerfG's judgment in relation to the previous 'solange' and Maastricht jurisprudence are: (1) the very strong link between democracy and sovereignty in the implementation of the principle of conferral; and (2) the indication that the Constitutional court will be the sole interpreter of what constitutes Germany's constitutional identity. The Court does not indicate what would happen in procedural terms if it were to find a provision of EU law in contradiction with Germany's constitutional identity or which would not respect the principle of conferral. This writer's view is that the only correct way to solve such an issue would be for a Constitutional court to refer to the European Court of Justice (ECJ) for a preliminary ruling on the invalidity of such a provision.