The system of transfer of sentenced persons within the EU in the light of the CJEU judgement in the Popławski (II) case

The author presents the consequences of the CJEU judgment of 24 June 2019 in case C-573/17 Popławski in relation to declarations limiting the temporal application of Framework Decision 2008/909 made under its Article 28(2). The CJEU clearly stated that any declaration made after the adoption of the Framework Decision is invalid and cannot bear legal consequences. As such, Member States should give effect to the Framework Decision as if the declaration had never been made. However, this may cause conflicts with their national laws enacted to implement such a declaration, since a framework decision, while binding, does not have a direct effect and, therefore, cannot require national authorities to refrain from applying their national laws. The author presents several ways this conflict can be resolved, in particular, through the pro-European interpretation of national law and the notion of dispersed constitutional review.