Transnational public law in Europe: beyond the “lex alius loci”

This article argues that public law – in the European legal space – is not a national enclave. Two cases are examined over time: the Algera case before the European Court of Justice and a ruling of an Italian administrative court, the Tribunale di giustizia amministrativa di Trento. While Algera is a dispute that occurred in the 1950s within the first phase of integration, that of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC), the other case was decided only a few years ago. In both cases, the judge came to the conclusion that the initial measure taken by the administrative authority was unlawful and that, therefore, it had to be withdrawn. But what matters more, for our purposes, is that both courts ‘found’ the relevant norms governing the exercise of administrative power beyond their own legal system.