Resumen de Self-determination at the European Courts: The Front Polisario Case or “The Unintended Awakening of a Giant”
The judgment delivered by the Court of Justice on 21st December 2016 in Front Polisario (case C-104/16 P, Council of the European Union v. Front Polisario [GC]), has all the ingredients to become a leading case of EU jurisprudence. While formally overturning the judgment by the General Court in case T-512/12 (judgment of 10 December 2015) which annulled the liberalization agreement concluded by EU with Morocco in 2012 as it violated the rights of the people of Western Sahara (occupied by Morocco), in substance the Court’s judgment even goes beyond the judgment of the General Court in defence of self-determination. The jus cogens and erga omnes character of self-determination is reiterated and emphasized by the Court of Justice. This is no small thing in a time when calls for self-determination seem to disrupt long-established states worldwide and also in Europe.
