The Dynamics of the Principle of Proportionality: An Essay in the Context of the Freedoms of Movement in European Union Law.

Summary The principle of proportionality, although seemingly trivial, actually represents a profound change in the law. The importance of this development, as well as the repercussion of this principle throughout the world, explains the considerable interest that this question has aroused in the recent literature. However, it is not common to analyze this principle in a particular context, as a manifestation of a specific culture. This thesis undertakes such an analysis in the context of the European Union, which is in many ways paradigmatic, by examining the reasoning of the Court of Justice in its decisions applying the freedoms of movement. On the one hand, this examination makes it possible to take note of the extent of the transformative potential of the principle of proportionality at the formal, material and institutional levels. Indeed, since this principle was conceived by the Court as an evaluation of the efficiency of state measures, the implications are heavy with regard to the form of reasoning employed by the Court, the function of the freedoms of movement and finally the distribution of competences between the Union and the member states. On the other hand, the principle of proportionality also proves to be a mirror particularly apt to reflect the particularities of the legal culture of the Union, within which a discourse of a technocratic nature is prevalent.