The Court of Justice in the Archives Project: Analysis of the Van Duyn Case (41/74)

This Working Paper is part of the CJEU in the Archives Project that sought to find the “added value” of analysing the dossier de procédure alongside already publicly available documents relating to landmark EU cases. Van Duyn v Home Office (1974) C-41/74 was the U.K.’s first preliminary reference procedure case and is best known for its decisions on the meaning of direct effect, free movement of workers and public policy under EU law. The dossier did provide some additional insight into the case due to the inclusion of the U.K.’s High Court decision and references to the U.K.’s domestic political context and policy making. Much of the dossier largely reflected already publicly available documents relating to the case suggesting the Court’s decision-making process is transparent. However, 11% of the dossier was redacted, potentially undermining this aforementioned conclusion. Being granting access to redacted documents in the future would be very beneficial for any research on the dossiers.