Extract
[...] Thus, both the inverted vertical effect (invocation of a non- or poorly transposed Directive by a State against a natural or legal person) and the horizontal direct effect are excluded. Non-opposability to private individuals (CJCE, Wells, 2004). Admitting the contrary would allow, on the one hand, the EU to 'issue with immediate effect obligations to individuals when it has only been attributed the power to adopt regulations' and, on the other hand, the Member States to shirk the transposition operation (CJCE, Faccini Dori, 1994). [...]
[...] - In a pedagogical consideration, the CE synthesizes the existing possibilities of invocation of the directives before adding that, 'in addition, any litigant may rely, in support of an action directed against an unregulated act, on the precise and unconditional provisions of a directive, when the State has not taken, within the deadlines set by it, the necessary transposition measures'. - The CE recognizes (finally ) that the purpose of the direct effect of directives is indeed 'to ensure the effectiveness of the rights that any person holds under this obligation against public authorities'. [...]
[...] To what extent does the direct effect of directives constitute a decisive factor in European integration? « What would have been the law of the European Communities without the judgments of 1963 and 1964». To the question posed by a former President of the Court of Justice, Pescator had responded as early as 1971 in his work devoted to the law of integration: the law of the European Communities would have remained an international law of cooperation. With the judgments Van Gend en Loos and Costa, it has become the common law of integration of a specific legal order (CJCE February 1963, Van Gend en Loos ; CJCE July 1964, Costa v Enel). [...]
[...] - The judgment Ratti, 1979 : - The expiration of the transposition period constitutes the pivotal date; - The direct effect can only be vertical and ascending. The Court will clarify later that the direct effect does not dispense States from transposing ( [...]
[...] The ECJ quickly imposed a strict respect of directives on the regulatory power, whether it intervened specifically in order to transpose them (ECJ, Confédération nationale, 1984) or more broadly, within their field of application (ECJ, Fédération française, 1984). The exception of illegality or rather of inconventionality against a law (ECJ, Cabinet, 1996) or judicial rules (ECJ, Head, 1998). The late admission of the direct effect of directives - Gradually emptied of its substance, Cohn-Bendit had become an empty shell. Solemn abandonment by Mme Perreux, 2009. [...]
