Von Colson and the principle of ‘indirect effect’

Drake, Sara ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1464-3395 2025. Von Colson and the principle of ‘indirect effect’. Craig, Paul and Schütze, Robert, eds. Landmark Cases in EU Law, Volume 1: The Constitutional Cases, Vol. 1. Landmark Cases, Oxford: Hart Publishing, pp. 81-94. (10.5040/9781509954155.ch-005)

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Abstract

From the early 1980s until the early 1990s, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) delivered a series of seminal judgments which enhanced the effective judicial protection of individuals’ European Union (EU) rights before national courts. The 1984 judgment of the ECJ in Von Colson is one of the most influential judgments of this era. It brought a new dimension to the ability of individuals to effectively protect their EU rights before national courts independent of the principle of direct effect. For while national courts are intrinsically engaged in the task of interpreting law in accordance with domestic rules of statutory interpretation, the ECJ in Von Colson placed a new duty on national courts derived directly from EU law to interpret domestic law ‘as far as possible’ in light of EU law. This duty is often referred to as the principle of conform or consistent interpretation. In English language scholarship, it is most commonly known as the principle of ‘indirect effect’ since EU law takes effect in the legal order indirectly through a judicial construction of national law rather than directly applying the EU provision through the doctrine of direct effect.

Item Type:	Book Section
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Schools > Cardiff Law & Politics
Publisher:	Hart Publishing
ISBN:	9781509954124
Last Modified:	30 Oct 2025 14:16
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/182006

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