Judicial independence under threat: The Court of Justice to the rescue in the ASJP case

The ECJ’s ruling in Associação Sindical dos Juízes Portugueses is nothing short of ground-breaking. First, it is arguably the most important judgment since Les Verts as regards the meaning and scope of the principle of the rule of law in the EU legal system. Second, it comes close to being the EU equivalent of the US Supreme Court case of Gitlow as regards the principle of effective judicial protection.