In ruling against Hungary and Poland's challenge to the European Union's rule-of-law budget conditions, the EU Court of Justice has adopted a potentially problematic approach. Rather than focusing squarely on the principles at stake, it has met the applicants' "fake legalism" with textual legalism of its own.
NEW YORK – The European Union and the governments of two member states, Hungary and Poland, have been on a collision course for years now. The broader dispute is about what, if anything, the EU may do when a member starts backsliding on its commitments to a fundamental principle like the rule of law. The parties have been at loggerheads over whether the EU may withhold funds on these grounds. And now, the EU Court of Justice (CJEU) has ruled that it may.
NEW YORK – The European Union and the governments of two member states, Hungary and Poland, have been on a collision course for years now. The broader dispute is about what, if anything, the EU may do when a member starts backsliding on its commitments to a fundamental principle like the rule of law. The parties have been at loggerheads over whether the EU may withhold funds on these grounds. And now, the EU Court of Justice (CJEU) has ruled that it may.