Direct Effect Revisited: Charter Horizontality and the Domestic Reception of Supranational Norms in Türkiye

Fatih Serbest

Direct Effect Revisited: Charter Horizontality and the Domestic Reception of Supranational Norms in Türkiye

Abstract

Direct effect is often treated as settled doctrine, but recent Charter case law has reshaped its horizontal boundary. This article revisits direct effect through the Court of Justice’s approach to vertical and horizontal disputes, focusing on Article 47 of the Charter and Article 19(1) TEU. It argues that the post 2018 line marks a calibrated shift from directive centred enforcement to Charter centred adjudication. The Court still denies horizontal direct effect to directives, yet it has required disapplication of national law in private disputes when EU law applies and the Charter norm is sufficient in itself. Egenberger, Bauer/Willmeroth, Max Planck and K.L. v X illustrate the pattern. MG (Energotehnica) extends it to procedural autonomy and rejects disciplinary chilling effects. The article proposes guardrails based on scope, sufficiency and remedial necessity. It then compares this model with Türkiye’s Article 90(5) practice and EU–Türkiye association.

Keywords

Supporting Institution

Tekirdağ Namık Kemal University

Ethical Statement

This study is based solely on doctrinal and comparative legal analysis of publicly available legal sources, including legislation, case law, and academic literature. It does not involve human participants, personal data, interviews, surveys, or experiments; therefore, ethics committee approval and informed consent were not required. The author declares no conflict of interest and no external funding. No new datasets were generated or analyzed. The manuscript is original, not under consideration elsewhere, and all sources are properly cited in accordance with recognized publication ethics.

Thanks

Thank you for considering our manuscript, “Direct Effect Revisited: Charter Horizontality and the Domestic Reception of Supranational Norms in Türkiye,” for possible publication in the Eurasian Journal of Comparative Law. We are grateful for your time and for the work of the editorial office in managing the review process.

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Details

Primary Language

English

Subjects

Comparative Law, International and Comparative Law (Other)

Journal Section

Research Article

Authors

Fatih Serbest ^*
0000-0001-7724-0828
Türkiye

Publication Date

April 8, 2026

Submission Date

February 15, 2026

Acceptance Date

March 23, 2026

Published in Issue

Year 2026 Volume: 2 Number: 1

IZ

https://izlik.org/JA43MB94YX

Cite

RIS / Bibtex

APA

Serbest, F. (2026). Direct Effect Revisited: Charter Horizontality and the Domestic Reception of Supranational Norms in Türkiye. Eurasian Journal of Comparative Law, 2(1), 39-90. https://izlik.org/JA43MB94YX

AMA

1.Serbest F. Direct Effect Revisited: Charter Horizontality and the Domestic Reception of Supranational Norms in Türkiye. Eurasian Journal of Comparative Law. 2026;2(1):39-90. https://izlik.org/JA43MB94YX

Chicago

Serbest, Fatih. 2026. “Direct Effect Revisited: Charter Horizontality and the Domestic Reception of Supranational Norms in Türkiye”. Eurasian Journal of Comparative Law 2 (1): 39-90. https://izlik.org/JA43MB94YX.

EndNote

Serbest F (April 1, 2026) Direct Effect Revisited: Charter Horizontality and the Domestic Reception of Supranational Norms in Türkiye. Eurasian Journal of Comparative Law 2 1 39–90.

IEEE

[1]F. Serbest, “Direct Effect Revisited: Charter Horizontality and the Domestic Reception of Supranational Norms in Türkiye”, Eurasian Journal of Comparative Law, vol. 2, no. 1, pp. 39–90, Apr. 2026, [Online]. Available: https://izlik.org/JA43MB94YX

ISNAD

Serbest, Fatih. “Direct Effect Revisited: Charter Horizontality and the Domestic Reception of Supranational Norms in Türkiye”. Eurasian Journal of Comparative Law 2/1 (April 1, 2026): 39-90. https://izlik.org/JA43MB94YX.

JAMA

1.Serbest F. Direct Effect Revisited: Charter Horizontality and the Domestic Reception of Supranational Norms in Türkiye. Eurasian Journal of Comparative Law. 2026;2:39–90.

MLA

Serbest, Fatih. “Direct Effect Revisited: Charter Horizontality and the Domestic Reception of Supranational Norms in Türkiye”. Eurasian Journal of Comparative Law, vol. 2, no. 1, Apr. 2026, pp. 39-90, https://izlik.org/JA43MB94YX.

Vancouver

1.Fatih Serbest. Direct Effect Revisited: Charter Horizontality and the Domestic Reception of Supranational Norms in Türkiye. Eurasian Journal of Comparative Law [Internet]. 2026 Apr. 1;2(1):39-90. Available from: https://izlik.org/JA43MB94YX