Karsten Engsig Sorensen’s scientific contributions

Recent events, involving inter alia France and Denmark, have stimulated renewed interest in the introduction of different forms of border controls at the internal borders within the European Union. These border control measures are aimed at checking either persons or goods or both. Against the background of these events, this article analyses the existing rules regulating controls of persons and goods, and explores how these rules may or may not stand in the way of introducing border controls at the European Union's internal borders. These events have resulted in a call for reforms of the current rules. This article examines the Commission's currently pending proposed changes, and discusses other possible reforms that would clarify the existing rules.

Since the rights of free movement have been given both a broader and more precise scope through the case law of the Court of Justice of the European Union, it seems inevitable that secondary legislation will contain elements which may infringe them. There is already extensive case law dealing with such conflicts, and this article examines the two main avenues pursued by the Court to reconcile secondary legislation and the rights of free movement: the duty to interpret secondary law so that it is consistent with the free movement rights, and the review of the validity of secondary legislation based on an assessment of infringement of the free movement rights. It is established that, although the Court uses both these avenues, it appears to have a preference for using the former There are, however indications that in future the Court will be ready to make a more intensive review of the validity of secondary legislation. It also appears that the Court often uses a third avenue, that of applying the free movement rights as a supplement to secondary legislation.