Introducing Procedural Proportionality Review in European Law

Proportionality review has emerged as a multi-purpose, best-practice standard for conflict resolution, and has for this reason been embraced by most constitutional systems worldwide. It is, however, difficult to escape the fact that proportionality review opens up room for judicial discretion. In European Union law, as well as European Convention on Human Rights law, this discretion has provided an activist judiciary with a most powerful tool for facilitating European integration through judicial adjudication. In a number of recent cases, this approach has been criticized. The critique raised reaches beyond the application of the proportionality principle in concrete cases. It also encompasses a critique of the proportionality principle as such, at least the conventional interpretation of the proportionality principle. This, in turn, raises questions concerning the concept of European law, its constitutional quest and even its very legitimacy. In this article the author discusses the legal and political implications of these challenges and proposes a revival of political power at the expense of judicial power. To this effect, the author introduces procedural proportionality review. Procedural proportionality review secures judicial deference, although not judicial abdication, in politically controversial and democratically legitimate cases.