Ph.d.-Introduction Roundtable - Mads Whitta-Jacobsen

The European Union is built on a foundation of common rules applying uniformly to all member states. The principle of primacy of EU law developed by the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) plays a key role in ensuring this. According to the CJEU, primacy of EU law is absolute and includes primacy over national constitutional law. However, according to most supreme courts and constitutional courts of the member states, the primacy of EU law is only relative meaning it is limited by the boundaries of national constitutional law.

The different perspectives on primacy have the potential to cause conflicts between the member states’ courts and the CJEU if national constitutional law opposes the application of EU law the way it is required by EU law and potentially prevents it from being applied in the member state. The national courts and the CJEU have until recently managed to avoid conflicts from escalating through judicial dialogue and different degrees of cooperation. However, over the last decade several national courts have openly challenged the scope of the principle of primacy and refused to comply with binding preliminary rulings of the CJEU. I believe that this is a very concerning development which threatens the coherency and stability of the EU.

In my project I will examine if and how potential constitutional conflicts between national courts and the CJEU concerning primacy can be avoided through cooperation and judicial dialogue in the preliminary procedure. I will examine the legal characteristics of cases where the courts have managed to avoid escalation of potential conflicts and cases where conflicts escalate. I will also examine if institutional changes can contribute to avoidance of conflicts. I hope that my project can in practice function as a “how to guide” on cooperation between the courts of the member states and the CJEU.

Short biography

Mads Whitta-Jacobsen got his master’s degree in law from University of Copenhagen in 2020 and afterwards worked as an assistant attorney and subsequently attorney at IUNO Law Firm and Poul Schmith Kammeradvokaten, department of public law. Mads started his Ph.d.- project in September 2023.