Acceso usuarios
Johanna Engström
This article discusses the Europeanization of national remedies through the judgemade principle of effective judicial protection. It will look at the European requirements on national remedies and procedures to understand what is actually required from the national judges. It will appear that the legal uncertainty pertaining to the understanding of EU law's requirements on remedies and procedures makes it difficult for national courts to provide effective judicial protection and, therefore, clarifications to the Court of Justice's case-law would be welcome. As the principle, however, rests on the empowerment of national judges, one must empirically analyze how it unfolds in the national legal habitat to form an opinion on the Europeanization of remedies and procedures in practice. In this article, the Swedish courts' reaction to and application of the principle of an effective judicial protection will be analyzed. It will appear that the Swedish courts have experienced problems in taking on the role that the principle confers on them. It will be suggested that this can be explained by Swedish legal and judicial culture, and the article thus illustrates how the "mind-set of judges" can play a role in the Europeanization process.
