INTRODUCTION

The maintenance of law and order and the safeguarding of internal security are competences at the very core of national sovereignty. The Member States have tried to keep both the EC and the EU from impinging upon the exercise of these responsibilities by introducing several provisions to such effect in the Treaties. Unsurprisingly, the Member States' concerns in this regard reach their peak within the framework of the Area of Freedom, Security and Justice (AFSJ); this is understandable, given the extent to which ‘the European Union has increased its role in securing police, customs and judicial cooperation and in developing a coordinated policy with regard to asylum, immigration and external border controls’ over the past years.

In terms of general judicial control, the AFSJ itself has come a long way since the creation of the third pillar at Maastricht, where the Court was given little jurisdiction in this field. The Treaty of Amsterdam subsequently extended the jurisdiction of the Court to the third pillar (Title VI TEU) and to the new provisions on visa, asylum and immigration policies, which previously fell within the third pillar and were then transferred to the first one (Title IV, Part Three of the EC Treaty – hereafter Title IV TEC). There are special judicial arrangements in place for the whole of the AFSJ, be it in the first or in the third pillar, that limit the jurisdiction of the ECJ.