Skip to main content

Research Repository

Advanced Search

Three Decades of the Nakajima Doctrine in EU Law: Where Are We Now?

Stoyanov, Kristiyan

Three Decades of the Nakajima Doctrine in EU Law: Where Are We Now? Thumbnail


Authors



Abstract

Under the Nakajima doctrine, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) can review the legality of a European Union (EU) measure in the light of the World Trade Organization (WTO) agreements if the EU legislature intended to implement a particular obligation assumed in the context of those agreements. This article argues that Nakajima remains a valid exception to the lack of direct effect of WTO law in the EU. Section II highlights the CJEU’s restrictive interpretation of Nakajima. Section III shows that in recent case law the CJEU continues to take a narrow interpretation of Nakajima, although the CJEU has been reluctant to abolish it altogether. This section also analyses the feasibility of establishing the intention to implement WTO law based on external circumstances (Section III.B) and demonstrates Nakajima’s significance beyond EU law (Section III.C). Section IV criticizes the CJEU’s combination of Nakajima and the principle of interpreting EU law in consistency with international law. Section V concludes.

Citation

Stoyanov, K. (2021). Three Decades of the Nakajima Doctrine in EU Law: Where Are We Now?. Journal of International Economic Law, 24(4), 724-737. https://doi.org/10.1093/jiel/jgab042

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Nov 18, 2021
Online Publication Date Dec 14, 2021
Publication Date 2021-12
Deposit Date Nov 9, 2021
Publicly Available Date Feb 18, 2022
Journal Journal of International Economic law.
Print ISSN 1369-3034
Electronic ISSN 1464-3758
Publisher Oxford University Press
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 24
Issue 4
Pages 724-737
DOI https://doi.org/10.1093/jiel/jgab042

Files

Published Journal Article (Advance online version) (226 Kb)
PDF

Publisher Licence URL
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Copyright Statement
Advance online version This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. For commercial re-use, please contact journals.permissions@oup.com





You might also like



Downloadable Citations