2021
Amedeo ARENA, Assistant professor, Faculty of Law, University ‘Federico II’, Napoli, Italy, From an electricity bill to the supremacy of European law, or the making of Costa v. ENEL
DOI: https://www.doi.org/10.31178/AUBD.2021.02
Abstract: Whilst Costa vs. ENEL is the locus classicus for
most accounts of the primacy of European law, the story of that lawsuit is
still relatively unknown. What drove Flaminio Costa to sue his electricity
provider over a bill of as little as ₤1.925 (about €22 in 2020)? Why did
the Small-claims Court of Milan decide to involve both the Italian
Constitutional Court and the European Court of Justice in such a „petty”
lawsuit? Why did those two courts hand down such different rulings? How did the
lawsuit end when it came back from Luxembourg? Relying upon previously
undisclosed court documents and interviews with some of the actors involved,
this paper seeks to shed some light on the less-known aspects of the Costa v
ENEL lawsuit, against the background of electricity nationalization in Italy at
the height of the Cold War, and to assess the contribution of that lawsuit and
of its „architect”, Gian Galeazzo Stendardi, to the approfondissement of the
doctrine of primacy of European law.
Keywords: European Union legal history, Primacy of Community law,
Constitutionality Review, Preliminary Ruling, Judicial Empowerment.
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