Maastricht Journal of European and Comparative Law
Journal Data
| Type | JOURNAL |
|---|---|
| Publisher | SAGE Publishing (US) |
| ISSN | 1023-263X / 2399-5548 |
| Scopus | 15517 |
| OpenAlex | S4210189793 |
| MAG | 4210189793 |
| Website | https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/maastricht-journal-of-european-and-comparative-law/journal202693 |
| Total publications | 26 |
| Coverage period | 1997 - 2026 |
| Country | GB |
| Language | EN |
| Indexing | Scopus indexed |
| Impact factor | 3 |
| SJR | 0.329 (Q2) |
| SNIP | 1.496 |
| CiteScore | 2.1 |
| Female authorship share | 50% |
This journal focuses on European and comparative law. While legal anthropology is a subfield, this venue's emphasis is on formal legal scholarship, making anthropological content occasional rather than structural
Law · Political Science and International Relations · Comparative and International Law Studies · Conflict of Laws and Jurisdiction · Corporate Governance and Law · Corporate Law and Human Rights · Criminal Law and Evidence · Digitalization, Law, and Regulation · Discrimination and Equality Law · Dispute Resolution and Class Actions
From Residence Rights to Full Recognition, but Not as a Marriage? Free Movement and the Expansion of the Obligation of Cross-Border Recognition of Same-Sex Marriages in Cupriak-Trojan and Trojan
In Cupriak-Trojan and Trojan , the CJEU addressed the cross-border recognition of same-sex marriages within the EU. The judgment builds on the Court’s earlier ruling in Coman , which required Member States to recognize a same-sex marriage concluded in another Member State for the limited purpose of granting a derived right of residence to the third-country national spouse of a Union citizen. Cupriak-Trojan and Trojan arose in a different factual …
The New Era of Leveraging the EU's Fiscal Space for Common Borrowing
To allow for large-scale common EU borrowing of over €1 trillion for NextGenerationEU, SURE, SAFE and assistance to Ukraine, the EU significantly adapted its legal framework since 2020, consolidating national borrowing capacity with centralized EU debt issuance. This article examines the main features of this new era of common EU borrowing, detailing both the legal and financial architecture underpinning this policy. Financially, EU borrowing aim…
‘Objectively comparable’? The free movement of persons within the European Economic Area
Article 1 EEA establishes a ‘homogeneous European Economic Area’ that entails ‘the free movement of persons’. Nationals of the EEA EFTA States are afforded rights of movement and residence, regardless of whether they are economically active. The CJEU has characterized the legal status of EEA nationals as ‘objectively comparable’ with that of EU citizens. Differences between the rights protection afforded in the EEA EFTA pillar and the EU pillar w…
The ex-ante review by national courts of acts adopted with unanimity in the EU
This article examines the role of national courts tasked with constitutional jurisdiction in the ex-ante review of acts adopted in the context of European integration requiring unanimous agreement among the Member States, such as the European Treaties, mixed agreements, inter se agreements and certain secondary EU legal acts. National courts often review the constitutionality of these acts prior to their adoption, becoming veto players in the com…
The system of own resources of the European Union
The article explores the European Union's system of own resources, a foundational yet often underexamined aspect of EU integration. Tracing its evolution from the EEC Treaty to the current framework, the article assesses the conceptual ambiguity surrounding the notion of ‘own resources’, the limits of the EU's financial autonomy and the institutional challenges arising from the unanimity requirement and the limited involvement of the European Par…
Enforcing the Charter of Fundamental Rights through EU funding
This article examines the Charter horizontal enabling condition as a novel mechanism for enforcing fundamental rights through EU funding under the 2021–2027 Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF). Notwithstanding its greater relevance in the financial enforcement of Article 2 TEU values, the Charter horizontal enabling condition has received limited scholarly attention so far, especially in comparison to the Conditionality Regulation. The article …
EU Funding in Times of Geopolitical Turbulence
The Special Issue "EU Funding in Times of Geopolitical Turbulence: A Constitutional Laboratory" examines the evolution of the EU budget amid geopolitical turmoil, with particular attention to post-pandemic developments and the ongoing reform of the Multiannual Financial Framework. It comes at a critical juncture for the present and future of EU funding, at the crossroads between the short-term restructuring of the existing framework and the mediu…
Hidden in plain sight
The escalating climate crisis and major advances in climate litigation question the existence of constitutional protection for environmental rights in the EU legal system. For forty years, Article 11 TFEU has mandated the integration of environmental protection requirements into all EU policies. Yet it remains largely dormant in the case law even as the EU Green Deal evidenced progress in policymaking. Although the provision is often dismissed as…
The social legacy in EU budget law
The EU budget now stands at its recurring turning point: the next Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) for 2028–2034. This article examines a dimension of this budget considerably underexplored – its social legacy – and takes this legacy to interrogate the trajectory of budgetary integration, including the current MFF proposal, and its delicate balances of market, social, spatial and lately geopolitical concerns. The analysis centres on the Euro…
The Hungarian Face Recognition Technology In Light of EU Law
This article concerns the compliance of Hungarian legislation on the use of face recognition technology in misdemeanour procedures with AI law, data protection and its status in criminal justice. Hungary has recently modified a series of national laws in an attempt to abolish assemblies which would represent any sexual or gender identity which does not conform to heterosexuality or traditional gender roles, in other words, Pride. To this end, the…
A Single Member State Only? The Exclusive Effect of Conflict Rules in EU Social Security Law
The article examines the scope and limits of the single-state principle in EU social security law. Article 11(1) of Regulation 883/2004 provides that a person shall be subject to the legislation of ‘a single Member State only’. This is commonly understood to give the conflict rules in Title II exclusive effect, designating one competent Member State whose legislation applies to the exclusion of all others. The article submits, first, that preclud…
Electricity storage and state aid
Recently, the promotion of large-scale deployment of electricity storage technologies has become an essential component of EU policies, as it is deemed crucial to the advancement of the green transition. Photovoltaic and wind generation are intermittent and cannot consistently meet electricity demand; hence, these technologies can store electricity during periods of excess generation and release it into the electricity system when needed, while a…
The multi-actor system of fundamental rights protection under EU platform regulation
Content moderation practices of online platforms are underpinned by a complex interplay between public and private power. This interplay raises important questions concerning the division of responsibility for safeguarding fundamental rights, particularly freedom of expression, among various actors involved in online content governance. This article examines the role of the CJEU in shaping an elaborate multi-actor system for the protection of fun…
Effective judicial protection in the CFSP after KS and KD
This paper critically examines the evolving landscape of effective judicial protection within the European Union’s Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) following the case of KS and KD . While the right to effective judicial protection is enshrined in Article 47 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights and Article 19(1) TEU, the CFSP remains a constitutional anomaly due to explicit jurisdictional carve-outs laid out in Articles 24 TEU and 275 TFE…
Solidarity via the EU Budget and its Implications in Emergencies
Although initially seen as politically and institutionally impracticable, the link between solidarity and the EU budget has since evolved into a fundamental pillar of the EU's current integration momentum. While successive crises have broken the long-standing taboo surrounding the notions of ‘solidarity’ and ‘distribution’, particularly within the realms of EU financial and budgetary governance, academic and judicial efforts are seeking to clarif…
Legal scholarship à la Maastricht
Twice a missed chance
Both awaited and criticized, the Court of Justice's judgment in Commission v. Malta reflects a broader disquiet surrounding citizenship and its delicate task of sorting the ‘us’ and ‘them’. Amid this disquiet, the judgment delivers a seemingly straightforward message: money cannot ground the bonds of citizenship. The message however rests on shaky foundations. The Court deploys a vast array of concepts but leaves many underused or overstretched. …
Climate change litigation and the boundaries of victim Status in ECHR law
The Verein KlimaSeniorinnen Schweiz and Others v. Switzerland judgment attracted immediate and global attention. It has been referenced as a landmark judgment, one that may influence and even transform climate litigation in Europe and beyond. However, more than a year later, questions about its exact impact remain unanswered. This contribution critically reflects on the procedural aspect of the judgment, in particular the ECtHR's approach to locu…
The European Mediation Paradox revisited
Despite decades of policy initiatives and broad recognition of its effectiveness, mediation remains underutilized across much of Europe – a phenomenon termed the ‘EU Mediation Paradox’. This article presents new evidence on mediation use and practice, drawing on a 2024 survey of more than 2,400 mediation experts and related professionals across EU Member States and the UK. Latent class analysis identifies four archetypal national mediation framew…
Blurred realities
This article examines the legal, regulatory and societal challenges posed by deepfake technology, situating its analysis within a comparative framework spanning the European Union, United States and China. It explores the multifaceted harms of deepfakes – from non-consensual pornography and political disinformation to financial fraud and identity manipulation – and analyses their rapid dissemination through online ecosystems that undermine both i…
The Element of Proximity in the Age of Remote Warfare
In the past two decades, the European Court of Human Rights has struggled to determine when a killing caused in extraterritorial context reaches the necessary threshold to establish jurisdiction. Its case-law differs depending on the type of bombing or artillery used and from what distance a person was killed. Since Georgia v. Russia II, the Court has established ‘the element of proximity’, in which it acknowledges that the physical distance betw…
Defence Loans and New Trajectories of EU Economic Integration
This article examines the SAFE Regulation, a key component of the ‘White Paper for European Defence: Readiness 2030’, as a central innovation in EU defence financing and fiscal governance. Drawing on the pandemic-era experience of SURE and the Recovery and Resilience Facility, SAFE enables the EU to issue loans to support Member States’ defence investments through coordinated spending. The article advances three main arguments. First, it shows ho…
The map and the territory
The Editorial takes stock of the current trends of inter-disciplinary scholarship on EU Law’s infrastructural power
New Imperialism (1870–1914) and the European Legal Traditions
During the partition of Africa at the end of the 19 th century, the focus of European states was no longer on just maximizing power and profits by extending markets for the mother country by monopolizing trade. A political dimension was added by the belief of Europeans that they were responsible for promoting civilization and establishing governments in the countries under their imperial authority. This integrative movement, from a European point…
The Charter
No prominent publications on this page.
The Impossibility of ‘Legal Transplants’
The Charter
New Imperialism (1870–1914) and the European Legal Traditions
During the partition of Africa at the end of the 19 th century, the focus of European states was no longer on just maximizing power and profits by extending markets for the mother country by monopolizing trade. A political dimension was added by the belief of Europeans that they were responsible for promoting civilization and establishing governments in the countries under their imperial authority. This integrative movement, from a European point…
The map and the territory
The Editorial takes stock of the current trends of inter-disciplinary scholarship on EU Law’s infrastructural power
From Residence Rights to Full Recognition, but Not as a Marriage? Free Movement and the Expansion of the Obligation of Cross-Border Recognition of Same-Sex Marriages in Cupriak-Trojan and Trojan
In Cupriak-Trojan and Trojan , the CJEU addressed the cross-border recognition of same-sex marriages within the EU. The judgment builds on the Court’s earlier ruling in Coman , which required Member States to recognize a same-sex marriage concluded in another Member State for the limited purpose of granting a derived right of residence to the third-country national spouse of a Union citizen. Cupriak-Trojan and Trojan arose in a different factual …
The New Era of Leveraging the EU's Fiscal Space for Common Borrowing
To allow for large-scale common EU borrowing of over €1 trillion for NextGenerationEU, SURE, SAFE and assistance to Ukraine, the EU significantly adapted its legal framework since 2020, consolidating national borrowing capacity with centralized EU debt issuance. This article examines the main features of this new era of common EU borrowing, detailing both the legal and financial architecture underpinning this policy. Financially, EU borrowing aim…
‘Objectively comparable’? The free movement of persons within the European Economic Area
Article 1 EEA establishes a ‘homogeneous European Economic Area’ that entails ‘the free movement of persons’. Nationals of the EEA EFTA States are afforded rights of movement and residence, regardless of whether they are economically active. The CJEU has characterized the legal status of EEA nationals as ‘objectively comparable’ with that of EU citizens. Differences between the rights protection afforded in the EEA EFTA pillar and the EU pillar w…
The ex-ante review by national courts of acts adopted with unanimity in the EU
This article examines the role of national courts tasked with constitutional jurisdiction in the ex-ante review of acts adopted in the context of European integration requiring unanimous agreement among the Member States, such as the European Treaties, mixed agreements, inter se agreements and certain secondary EU legal acts. National courts often review the constitutionality of these acts prior to their adoption, becoming veto players in the com…
The system of own resources of the European Union
The article explores the European Union's system of own resources, a foundational yet often underexamined aspect of EU integration. Tracing its evolution from the EEC Treaty to the current framework, the article assesses the conceptual ambiguity surrounding the notion of ‘own resources’, the limits of the EU's financial autonomy and the institutional challenges arising from the unanimity requirement and the limited involvement of the European Par…
Enforcing the Charter of Fundamental Rights through EU funding
This article examines the Charter horizontal enabling condition as a novel mechanism for enforcing fundamental rights through EU funding under the 2021–2027 Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF). Notwithstanding its greater relevance in the financial enforcement of Article 2 TEU values, the Charter horizontal enabling condition has received limited scholarly attention so far, especially in comparison to the Conditionality Regulation. The article …
EU Funding in Times of Geopolitical Turbulence
The Special Issue "EU Funding in Times of Geopolitical Turbulence: A Constitutional Laboratory" examines the evolution of the EU budget amid geopolitical turmoil, with particular attention to post-pandemic developments and the ongoing reform of the Multiannual Financial Framework. It comes at a critical juncture for the present and future of EU funding, at the crossroads between the short-term restructuring of the existing framework and the mediu…
Hidden in plain sight
The escalating climate crisis and major advances in climate litigation question the existence of constitutional protection for environmental rights in the EU legal system. For forty years, Article 11 TFEU has mandated the integration of environmental protection requirements into all EU policies. Yet it remains largely dormant in the case law even as the EU Green Deal evidenced progress in policymaking. Although the provision is often dismissed as…
The social legacy in EU budget law
The EU budget now stands at its recurring turning point: the next Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) for 2028–2034. This article examines a dimension of this budget considerably underexplored – its social legacy – and takes this legacy to interrogate the trajectory of budgetary integration, including the current MFF proposal, and its delicate balances of market, social, spatial and lately geopolitical concerns. The analysis centres on the Euro…
The Hungarian Face Recognition Technology In Light of EU Law
This article concerns the compliance of Hungarian legislation on the use of face recognition technology in misdemeanour procedures with AI law, data protection and its status in criminal justice. Hungary has recently modified a series of national laws in an attempt to abolish assemblies which would represent any sexual or gender identity which does not conform to heterosexuality or traditional gender roles, in other words, Pride. To this end, the…
A Single Member State Only? The Exclusive Effect of Conflict Rules in EU Social Security Law
The article examines the scope and limits of the single-state principle in EU social security law. Article 11(1) of Regulation 883/2004 provides that a person shall be subject to the legislation of ‘a single Member State only’. This is commonly understood to give the conflict rules in Title II exclusive effect, designating one competent Member State whose legislation applies to the exclusion of all others. The article submits, first, that preclud…
Electricity storage and state aid
Recently, the promotion of large-scale deployment of electricity storage technologies has become an essential component of EU policies, as it is deemed crucial to the advancement of the green transition. Photovoltaic and wind generation are intermittent and cannot consistently meet electricity demand; hence, these technologies can store electricity during periods of excess generation and release it into the electricity system when needed, while a…
The multi-actor system of fundamental rights protection under EU platform regulation
Content moderation practices of online platforms are underpinned by a complex interplay between public and private power. This interplay raises important questions concerning the division of responsibility for safeguarding fundamental rights, particularly freedom of expression, among various actors involved in online content governance. This article examines the role of the CJEU in shaping an elaborate multi-actor system for the protection of fun…
Effective judicial protection in the CFSP after KS and KD
This paper critically examines the evolving landscape of effective judicial protection within the European Union’s Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) following the case of KS and KD . While the right to effective judicial protection is enshrined in Article 47 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights and Article 19(1) TEU, the CFSP remains a constitutional anomaly due to explicit jurisdictional carve-outs laid out in Articles 24 TEU and 275 TFE…
Solidarity via the EU Budget and its Implications in Emergencies
Although initially seen as politically and institutionally impracticable, the link between solidarity and the EU budget has since evolved into a fundamental pillar of the EU's current integration momentum. While successive crises have broken the long-standing taboo surrounding the notions of ‘solidarity’ and ‘distribution’, particularly within the realms of EU financial and budgetary governance, academic and judicial efforts are seeking to clarif…
Legal scholarship à la Maastricht
Twice a missed chance
Both awaited and criticized, the Court of Justice's judgment in Commission v. Malta reflects a broader disquiet surrounding citizenship and its delicate task of sorting the ‘us’ and ‘them’. Amid this disquiet, the judgment delivers a seemingly straightforward message: money cannot ground the bonds of citizenship. The message however rests on shaky foundations. The Court deploys a vast array of concepts but leaves many underused or overstretched. …
Climate change litigation and the boundaries of victim Status in ECHR law
The Verein KlimaSeniorinnen Schweiz and Others v. Switzerland judgment attracted immediate and global attention. It has been referenced as a landmark judgment, one that may influence and even transform climate litigation in Europe and beyond. However, more than a year later, questions about its exact impact remain unanswered. This contribution critically reflects on the procedural aspect of the judgment, in particular the ECtHR's approach to locu…
The European Mediation Paradox revisited
Despite decades of policy initiatives and broad recognition of its effectiveness, mediation remains underutilized across much of Europe – a phenomenon termed the ‘EU Mediation Paradox’. This article presents new evidence on mediation use and practice, drawing on a 2024 survey of more than 2,400 mediation experts and related professionals across EU Member States and the UK. Latent class analysis identifies four archetypal national mediation framew…
Blurred realities
This article examines the legal, regulatory and societal challenges posed by deepfake technology, situating its analysis within a comparative framework spanning the European Union, United States and China. It explores the multifaceted harms of deepfakes – from non-consensual pornography and political disinformation to financial fraud and identity manipulation – and analyses their rapid dissemination through online ecosystems that undermine both i…
The Element of Proximity in the Age of Remote Warfare
In the past two decades, the European Court of Human Rights has struggled to determine when a killing caused in extraterritorial context reaches the necessary threshold to establish jurisdiction. Its case-law differs depending on the type of bombing or artillery used and from what distance a person was killed. Since Georgia v. Russia II, the Court has established ‘the element of proximity’, in which it acknowledges that the physical distance betw…