Op-Ed: “It’s all about (the Romanian) context. The Judgement in Case-817/21 Inspecția Judiciară” by Raluca Bercea

Introduction

‘In other contexts, the same meaning may or not be the right one’, one can read in a common law judgement, while, on the contrary, context is hardly systematically relied on by continental judges. In the practice of the European courts, however, the emphasis on context is noticeable in the judicial independence and impartiality case-law, both in Strasbourg, where it connects with the ‘doctrine of appearances’ and in Luxembourg, as proves the most recent judgement delivered by the Court of Justice on the Romanian rule of law saga, in Inspecția Judiciară (C-817/21). I have described elsewhere the origins of the Romanian rule of law waves of referrals, and their recent