Conclusions

Abstract This work has analysed the principle of subsidiarity and examined the judicial implementation of the principle. The aim of the first part (the analysis of subsidiarity) was to construct a more sustained legal critique of the principle. The purpose of the second part was to consider the extent to which the Court is implementing the principle and to explain the Court’s current position on subsidiarity. My thesis was the following. Subsidiarity is ill adapted for use as a counter-majoritarian instrument and, more generally, for solving the federal legitimacy problems of the Community, for both functional and normative reasons. Functionally speaking, the principle seems devoid of any clear legal content, which makes its implementation, especially its legal implementation, problematic. In this I agreed with the classical legal critique of the principle.