The right to effective judicial protection with respect to acts imposing restrictive measures and its transformative force for the common foreign and security policy

This article focuses on the scope and limits of the right to effective judicial protection (Art. 47 CFR) in the context of the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP). This right has been broadly interpreted by the ECJ in a way that transforms this policy. The principle of effective judicial protection is used as a vehicle to assert the Court’s jurisdiction but also to extend access to the Court of Justice to third countries, as well as to protect individual rights, including those of former Heads of State or Government who are subject to judicial proceedings in their home country. The article argues that the broad scope of the right to effective judicial protection, resulting from various strands of the case law, is a welcome development in the CFSP, which is in line with the nature of the EU and with its founding values. Yet, in the Venezuela ruling (Case C-872/19 P), the interpretation offered by the ECJ stretches the limits of Article 47 CFR and of the rule of law too far.