International Law: Publications

Carter-Ruck client Yassin Kadi won a landmark appeal in the European Court of Justice in the autumn of 2008 in which it was held for the first time that EC legislation derived from a United Nations Resolution must be compliant with fundamental human rights principles.

Mr Kadi, a Saudi Arabian businessman and philanthropist, brought the appeal after the lower Court of First Instance ruled in 2005 that it did not have the power to review an EU measure which caused his assets to be frozen.

However, after a hearing before 14 judges from across Europe, the full European Court of Justice ruled on 3 September 2008 that the UN-derived freezing measure which took automatic effect in Europe  breached Mr Kadi’s fundamental rights and should be struck down insofar as it applied to him.

The  judgment, which was the culmination of a 7-year battle by Mr Kadi, has been described as “the most important judgment ever delivered by the European Court of Justice on the relationship between EC and international law and one of its most important judgments on fundamental rights”.

A number of leading academics have examined the implications and significance of the case.

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