Court of Justice of the European Union or European Court of Human Rights – Is There a ‘Supreme Court of Europe’?

Abstract

Abstract In Europe, judicial review is not only exercised by courts within the states. Additionally, there are two European Courts, the Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU) and the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR). This chapter shows first their respective function with respect to judicial review. In a second step, it put its emphasis on the relationship between them and undertakes to ask whether – with respect to judicial review - one of them can be understood as the ‘Supreme Court of Europe’. It concludes that it is the European Court of Human Rights which can be described as such a ‘Supreme Court’.