Could Greece take Europe to court?

Could a desperate Greece go to court over its financial dispute with Europe? The crisis is more about politics and finance than it is about law. But some reports have suggested Greece might take legal action. So let’s look at the relevant legal texts, and some ways in which – theoretically, anyway – Greece could take its case to European Court of […]

Same-sex marriage: the US, Europe and the Obergefell questions

The US Supreme Court’s opinion in Obergefell v Hodges – it may come out today, or next week – will be historic whatever it decides. The main question is whether the Fourteenth Amendment to the US Constitution with its guarantee of the “equal protection of the laws” requires states to allow same-sex marriage. Either it […]

Supreme Court judgment: Prix v Work and Pensions Secretary

In what amounts to a defeat for the government, the Supreme Court has decided in this case to refer to the European Court of Justice questions on the interpretation of the EU Citizenship Directive, 2004/38. From the government’s point of view, the case is about the need to strictly limit the circumstances in which benefits have to […]

Case C 303/06 Coleman v Attridge Law

The European Court of Justice has given a judgment today to the effect that the “Employment Directive”, 2000/78, which outlaws discrimination at work on grounds including disability, does not simply outlaw discrimination against disabled workers but extends to protecting the non-disabled mother of a disabled child. Sharon Coleman says that after she gave birth to […]

O’Byrne v Aventis: obscurity, the ECJ and needless delay

Some people have suggested that when the House of Lords becomes our Supreme Court in just over a year, it should abandon the practice of judges giving individual judgments, sometimes disagreeing with each other, which means lawyers have to work out exactly who’s won, and on what points. The suggestion is that the new court […]