In September 2021, more than a decade after the Review of European Administrative Law has established itself as a leading forum for scholarship on European and comparative administrative law, the Editorial Board of the journal has set out on a new endeavour, the creation of a blog, where case law, policy developments, and scholarly discussions are highlighted and examined.
Within the first year of its existence, the blog has published fifty pieces covering various topics in comparative administrative law (such as legal transplants in Portugal), Europeanisation of national administrative law (for instance on RENEUAL in the Netherlands, the Europeanisation of French public law and the civil service in Europe), European administrative law (for example effective judicial protection, public procurement, and agencies) and transnational administrative law (for instance cross-border cooperation in intensive care matters).
Most notably, we organised two so-called “focus” sections which are a series of pieces dedicated to discussing in-depth a case recently decided by the Court of Justice. We first discussed the Cilfit case law and preliminary references to the CJEU (Consorzio Italian Management II (C-561/19)) and then cooperation in taxation matters (État Luxembourgeois v B (C‑245/19 and C‑246/19) & État luxembourgeois v L (C-437/19).
We are immensely proud that our authors range widely from all corners of Europe (from Cambridge to Copenhagen, from Umeå to Lisbon) at all levels of seniority.
The blog attracted approximately between 500 and 750 visitors a month, with the most views coming in numerical order from the Netherlands, Italy, Belgium, the UK, Spain, the USA, and Germany (all above 500 over the course of our first year of publication).
Our most visited pieces this year were:
- La jurisprudence des petits pas: C-561/19, Consorzio Italian Management, Catania Multiservizi SpA v Rete Ferroviaria Italiana SpA, by Giulia Gentile and Matteo Bonelli
- Nemo censetur ignorare legem: the dilemma regarding the access to ISO standards referenced into EU law, by Marie Gérardy
- CILFIT ‘Motionless Titan’ Has Moved, albeit Softly and with Circumspection: Consorzio Italian Management II, by Lorenzo Cecchetti
- The Constitutional Review of National Courts’ Compliance with the Obligation to Refer Preliminary Questions after Consorzio Italian Management, by Xabier Arzoz
- We already said no. Why are you asking again? – A procurement perspective on Consorzio Italian Management e Catania Multiservizi II, by Albert Sanchez-Graells
- Environmental procedural rights before European courts: still searching for a common script or multiplying avenues of protection?, by Justine Richelle
- Contradictory ECJ judgments on the enforcement of final national decisions: the principle of primacy versus the principle of national procedural autonomy, by Rolf Ortlep and Melanie van Zanten
Do catch up with them if you missed them when they were published!
The blog activity has gone hand in hand with increasing our Twitter followers by more than twenty a month on average since the blog launch.
The blog has aimed not only to highlight the scholarship published in the journal, but to create a proper forum for discussion for academics of all countries, seniorities, and affiliations to discuss European and comparative administrative law. It has the ambition to be a “safe space” where thoughts can be exchanged in a critical yet respectful fashion, news ideas can be generated, and innovative projects can be discussed and concretised.
Coming up next academic year, REALaw.blog intends to publish a series of comments on the recent CJEU case T‑510/17, Antonio Del Valle Ruiz v European Commission and Single Resolution Board (SRB) (for a preliminary assessment click here). We very much encourage initiatives for “focus” sections on specific themes, recent case law, or policy initiatives.
We also welcome proposals for online book discussions or methodological reflections. Furthermore, in order to expand the comparative focus of our blog, we particularly encourage submissions concerning administrative law issues in the following:
- Nordic countries;
- Eastern and Central European countries;
- Countries in the accession process to the EU;
- Small jurisdictions on the European territory.
We want to thank all our authors and readers and look forward to the second year of life of the blog. The ReaLaw blog will suspend its activities for the summer recess and will resume its weekly postings in Mid-September.
Enjoy the Summer break!
Mariolina Eliantonio and Yseult Marique
Suggested citation: M Eliantonio and Y Marique, “REALaw.blog Newsletter 2022”, REALaw.blog available at https://wp.me/pcQ0x2-qt.
REALaw 