Juridical Tribune (Dec 2020)
Constitutional/judicial resistance to European Law in Iceland. Sovereignty and constitutional identity vs. access to justice under the EEA Agreement
Abstract
In the context of occasional constitutional resistance to international and European Union (EU) law in other countries, we find a similar tension in Iceland vis-à-vis the European Economic Area (EEA) Agreement and the Icelandic constitutional/statutory domestic system (EEA Act 2/1993). The authority and effectiveness of EEA law seem disregarded with negative consequences for the judicial protection of individual rights. The EFTA Surveillance Authority (ESA) sent official letters to Iceland in 2015, 2016 and 2017. In its view, in too many recent cases, the Supreme Court has discarded and set aside validly implemented EEA law in order to give precedence to conflicting Icelandic law. In some cases, individuals have no proper remedy to exercise their European rights (State liability for judicial breaches of EEA law not admissible). It is uncertain at this time whether actions for infringement of EEA law will be brought by ESA to the EFTA Court. This study reviews this sort of judicial, legislative and/or constitutional resistance to EEA law in Iceland and argues that the use of concepts such as sovereignty (public international law) and constitutional identity (EU law) can never justify the denial of access to justice and effective judicial protection under the EEA Agreement.
