OVERVIEW OF RECENT CASES BEFORE THE EUROPEAN COURT OF HUMAN RIGHTS AND THE EUROPEAN COURT OF JUSTICE (NOVEMBER 2010 - MARCH 2011)

In this article, we review developments in the case law of the European Court of Justice and Court of Human Rights and EU legislative developments in the period November 2010 to March 2011. We focus on a number of key judgments - mainly involving an interpretation of the Treaty provisions - which look likely to have an important impact on social security issues: in particular, Test-Achats, concerning the incompatibility of secondary legislation allowing insurance products (including pension annuities) to be calculated by reference to gender-based actuarial factors; Casteels, concerning the impact of free movement on the co-ordination of occupational pensions (a matter largely unregulated by secondary law), and Ruiz Zambrano, concerning the impact of EU citizenship on the right to reside and consequent access to social benefits.(1)