Coda: Kafka, Kadi, Kant

Robert Schutze 

Durham University - Durham Law School
September 11, 2013

Abstract:      

While Yusuf only knocked at the judicial gates of the European Court of Justice, another case managed to get passed the door of Europe’s highest court. This second judicial review case was – not without sublime irony – called Kadi; and it is that case that has become the modern point of reference for the relationship between international and European law. Presumed to be a Taliban terrorist, the plaintiff’s financial assets had also been frozen as a result of European legislation reproducing a United Nations Security Council Resolution. Kadi (“K”) tried to challenge the “arrest”, but the General Court rejected – on the same day and with the same reasons as in Yusuf – the request for judicial review; yet “K” appealed to the European Court of Justice by insisting that his (European) rights of due process (among other things) had been violated. When the European Court delivered its judgment, Kadi I instantly became a constitutional cause célèbre, which has caused barrels of academic ink to be spilt. How has the Court decided Kadi II; and what are the broader philosophical questions involved in this story? This Coda explores the milestones of this Kafkaesque saga, in which “K” ultimately walked free after a decade of judicial battles.

Number of Pages in PDF File: 10

Keywords: Kadi, European Law, International Law, Human Rights, United Nations, Terrorism

Full text available at: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2324574