Good news for a bad habit. Competence allocation in the EU post the Tobacco cases

Professor Alexander Somek (University of Iowa)
and Fabio Marchetti (JT International)


Chair: Christina Knahr (ELRC Visitng Researcher)

Monday, March 1, 2004, 2:30-4:30 PM, Lewis 301

One might have suspected that the Tobacco Advertisement case, in which the ECJ for the first time invalidated Community legislation for want of Community jurisdiction, marked the beginning of a more restrictive construction of Community legislative power. As the subsequent ruling in Tobacco Labelling made clear, however, the opposite has been the case. In both cases, indeed, the Court arrived at a new rendering of Community jurisdiction, which may be called “market holism”. In this presentation Professor Somek will explain what market holism means and in which respect it consolidates the overcoming of constitutional constraints in a supranational organization. Additional reading can be found below.

Somek on Power

Opinion (AG Fennelly) and Judgment on the Tobacco Advertising Directive

Legal Opinion by Professor Hans-Peter Schneider

ECJ Ruling on Tobacco Advertising Directive

The New Advertising Directive Adopted in December 2002 and Challenged by the German Government

ECJ Judgement from December, 2002

Professor Alexander Somek teaches law at the University of Iowa. Before he moved to one of the most pleasant regions of the American Midwest he had been an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Law of the University of Vienna. During that time he developed, together with Nikolaus Forgó, a new approach to legal theory, which they decided to call, for want of a better expression, post-positivist. This approach provides the basis for a new constructivist method of legal analysis, which is reflected in his writings. Alexander's current research is mainly concerned with matters of European Community law and Constitutional law.

Fabio Marchetti graduated in Political Sciences with a major in International Relations and European law in 1997. His research focused on International and European Affairs. He completed an internship for a United Nations project fostering public and private partnerships. In 1999, as a fellow of the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs he undertook an LL.M in the College of Europe in Belgium. He was a European Affairs Manager for JT International , the third largest cigarette manufacturer where he is currently working as Corporate Affairs Manager in the EU Government Relations Office www.jti.com

Christina Knahr is a PhD candidate at the University of Vienna Law School and currently a Visiting Researcher at the European Law Research Center at HLS. She holds Masters Degrees in Law from the University of Vienna (1999) and in Public Administration from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard (2003). From 2000-2001 she was Assistant to an Austrian Member of Parliament in the European Parliament in Brussels. Her doctoral dissertation deals with the issue of private participation in the Dispute Settlement of the World Trade Organization. Christina's research focuses on European Law, International Law, and US-EU relations.