The Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU) has delivered a
landmark decision by ruling that Article 8 of the bit between the Netherlands
and the Slovak Republic, providing for investor-state arbitration, is not
compatible with EU law. The implications of this ruling go beyond this
particular case, which can be considered a landmark decision for two reasons.
First of all, the CJEU placed particular emphasis on the ecosystem of EU law,
as enshrined in Articles 344 and 267 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the
European Union (TFEU). Moreover, with this ruling, the CJEU has finally put an
end to the legal uncertainty that has arisen regarding the place of so-called
intra-EU BITs in the legal order of the EU. This case note provides the
background to the case and a deeper analysis of the judgement following the
three-step approach adopted by the CJEU, and will look ahead towards
unaddressed questions that might be raised as a consequence of this ruling.