Affaire Stop TTIP: Categorization of the Notion of Legal Act through the Past, Present and Future of the Notion

Abstract

The author follows the presumption that the perception and function of the legal interpretation of the ECJ has changed significantly over the last decades: the extending, quasi-legislative interpreation model has mostly been replaced by a more restrictive approach. The analysed judgement which has shed new light on the concept of legal act ensuring a greater space to European citizens’ initiatives, seems to resist this trend. The General Court in its judgment in case T-754/14 annulled the Commission Decision rejecting the request for registration of a European citizens’ initiative aiming, inter alia, at the withdrawal of the mandate to negotiate a trade and investment agreement with the US (TTIP). The study provides an in-depth analysis of the judgement in the context of the case-law of the ECJ concerning the interpretation of the ‘legal act’ concept. The importance and interest of the judgment lies in the innovative choice of the General Court to base its wider and categorised interpretation on the principle of democracy.