Strengthening the Rule of Law, But Fragmenting International Law: The Kadi Decision of the ECJ from the Perspective of Human Rights

Abstract

The article analyses the ECJ’s decision in the appeals of Kadi and Al Barakaat. It first considers its importance for the constitutionalisation of the EU legal order. It argues that the judgment is significant because the ECJ asserts a new hierarchy within the EC legal order between economic freedoms and wider 'constitutional principles' and because it confirms that a Community based on the rule of law has practical significance. A second line of analysis concerns the repercussions of the judgment on the international legal order. On the one hand the article considers that a Solange-type redefinition of the relationship between the international and the EU legal order is possible, which might provide impetus for the development of human rights protection in international law. On the other hand, it raises also the question whether a human rights friendly and rule-of-law based result could have been achieved by a reasoning that is less antagonistic towards international law because fragmentation of international law might not always increase accountability over the long-term.