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This panel was convened at 3:00 p.m., Friday, April 1, 2016, by its moderator Donald Francis Donovan of Debevoise & Plimpton LLP, who introduced the panellists: Andrés Jana of Bofill Mir & Alvarez Jana, Abogados; Heikki Kanninen of the General Court of the European Union; Margarette May Macaulay of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights; and Makane Moïse Mbengue of the University of Geneva Law School.*
REMARKS BY JUDGE HEIKKI KANNINEN[dagger]
Within the framework of international law, the European Union (EU) appears as a genuine legal order. Its law departs to a large extent from the traditional approach of international law, which focuses on the relations between states, on the one hand, and on the relations between a state and its citizens, on the other hand. The EU is obviously a multiform structure, when we look at the remedies that are available in the field of its legal system.
Legal remedies at the national and/or EU levels constitute a comprehensive, although not always very understandable, system. Let me describe how this system works. In order not to be too abstract and due to the limited time, I will take an example in the field of environmental law.
The EU has a large competence in this field. Areas such as nature protection, waste management, air quality, water protection and industrial pollution control, environment impact assessment, and access to environmental information fall within the scope of EU legislation. This legislation is mainly adopted through EU directives, which are binding on member states as to their result but leave national authorities the choice of form and methods for their implementation and application at the national level.
In principle, a directive needs to be implemented in the member states by means of national legislation. It has to be done within a time limit fixed by the directive itself. However, it is interesting to figure out what the consequences are, when a member state fails to implement a directive within the indicated time limit. When it happens, there is a breach of EU law by the member state at stake, that can do individuals harm, have negative effect on the functioning of the EU internal market, and impede the achievement of the environmental objectives of the EU. It is relatively...