The curious case of Landeskreditbank Baden-Württemberg v ECB, and the decision of the Bundesverfassungsgericht on the European Banking Union (or what no one tells you about judicial decision-making)

Event date
31 October 2019
Event time
12:30 - 14:00
Oxford week
Venue
Clifford Chance Seminar Room
Speaker(s)
Dr Pierre Schammo

In the wake of the sovereign debt crisis, European leaders decided to vest the European Central Bank (ECB) with bank supervisory competence. In Landeskreditbank Baden-Württemberg v ECB (T-122/15)the General Court described this competence as exclusive, both for so-called 'significant' and for so-called 'less significant' credit institutions. The decision caused surprise since it has important legal and practical ramifications, but it was later confirmed by the Court Justice (C-450/17 P)). Following a constitutional challenge to the Banking Union in Germany, the German Federal Constitutional Court (Bundesverfassungsgericht) was asked to consider the ECB’s competence in the banking field. As part of this challenge, the German Court had also to address the CJEU’s rulings in Landeskreditbank. But whilst the Bundesverfassungsgericht rejected the challenge before it, it was not without first engaging in some ‘legal gymnastics’ with respect to Landeskreditbank which, like the decision of the General Court, caused some surprise among bank supervisors and other observers. The aim of the seminar is to revisit the CJEU’s decisions in Landeskreditbank and in this context to consider to what extent the Bundesverfassungsgericht can be said to have in fact offered an altogether different reading of the CJEU’s rulings: one that clashes with, rather than matches, the CJEU’s actual ruling. 

 

A sandwich lunch will be available from 12.30. The meeting will begin at 1pm.

Found within

EU Law