Is the European Court of Justice (ECJ) a properly independent court? The damning verdict of two respected EU law academics on an episode involving the ECJ suggests it is not. This debacle also undermines the EU’s legal criticisms of Hungary and Poland – and raises worrying questions about how the Northern Ireland Protocol will be enforced.
The sorry saga dates back to the aftermath of the Brexit vote, when one of the ECJ’s 11 advocates general, Eleanor Sharpston, was sacked. Sharpston had every legal right to carry on. After all, ‘she’ didn’t Brexit, the UK did; she also has EU citizenship and is an outstanding EU lawyer. Unsurprisingly she took legal action to prevent her summary dismissal and to stop the appointment of a new advocate general.
On 4 September 2020, an independent judge recognised Sharpston’s dismissal was possibly wrong. A timetable was set out with an exchange of evidence set for 11 September to determine whether that was so.
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