Right to Life of the Unborn v. Promotion of Trade in Services: The European Court of Justice and the Normative Shaping of the European Union

This article discusses Society for the Protection of the Unborn Child v. Grogan, the first case where a private party sought in EC law the means to avoid restraints on freedom necessitated by the vindication of the constitutional right of another. The author focuses on the structure of argument in the case in light of the court's supporting decisions and the recent constitutional opinion on the European Economic Area. She concludes that the community legal doctrine of supremacy should be modified by forming a teleological jurisdictional rule which allows certain national laws relating to basic principles such as life, family and religion, which have a national vision of personhood or morality, and which are fundamental to the legitimacy of the national system, to take precedence over EC law. [Descriptors: Reproductive Rights - Reproductive Freedom, International - Europe]