Astrid Epiney

The Binding Effect of EU Fundamental Rights for Switzerland

The Bilateral Agreements concluded between Switzerland and the European Union rely on the parallel wording of part of their provisions to EU norms and references to EU secondary legislation to achieve a parallel legal situation between the EU and Switzerland. As the present contribution shows, this transfer of notions and concepts of EU law also encompasses EU fundamental rights standards, which possess thus binding effect for Switzerland under certain circumstances, although they are not explicitly mentioned in the agreements. As a result, fundamental rights protection in Switzerland has gained an additional source of protection and increased its effectiveness, which comes, however, at the price of rising complexity.

The Case Law of the European Court of Justice on Access to Justice in the Aarhus Convention and Its Implications for Switzerland

The present contribution assesses the case law of the European Court of Justice interpreting the provisions of the Aarhus Convention relating to access to justice. Cases have dealt with the temporal scope of application of provisions on access to justice, projects implemented by specific acts of national legislation and their exclusion from the obligations under the Convention, interim relief and the effet utile of provisions on access to justice, the range of possible pleas for judicial review, the role of procedural errors, permissible costs of proceedings, access to justice for environmental associations under different provisions of the Convention and the annulment of a permit and its relationship with the right to property. As is also shown, this case law is at the same time relevant – though not binding – for Switzerland as a non-eu Member State, but party to the Convention.

Climate Protection Law in the European Union—Emergence of a New Regulatory System *

“Climate Protection Law” has been developed during the last approximately 15 years on an international, supranational and regional level. In the European Union the trading scheme of greenhouse gas allowances—introduced by Directive 2003/87—is to be considered a central element of the European Union’s climate protection policy. Despite of the creation of the EU emission trading scheme already in 2003 the scheme raises a range of legal questions which have not been really clarified yet. Against this background, the following contribution will discuss—on the basis of a summary of the legal bases and the development of emission trading in the EU—some selected legal questions concerning design, interpretation and application of the Directive 2003/87. Additionally, the question of whether the emission trading scheme as provided by Directive 2003/87 could serve as a model for air protection respectively emission reduction of other air pollutants and / or as a model for a trans-regional or even global emission trading scheme will be discussed.

Zu den Implikationen der EU-Mitgliedschaft für die Stellung und Anwendung des Völkerrechts im innerstaatlichen Bereich

The question of the relationship between international law and national law is one of the classic questions of constitutional law, but also arises in the European Union according to the ratio Union law-international law or in regard to the position of international law in the Union. The basic existence of an EU competence to conclude international agreements arises on the one hand, from the few explicit contractual basis. The EU concluded contracts Priority is given to before the secondary legislation, as they are under Article 216 paragraph 2 Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU), inter alia binding on the Unions institutions. The chapter is in German. Keywords: des Vlkerrechts; EU-Mitgliedschaft