European Union Law
We have developed special expertise in EU Law concerning our fields, including State liability in case of breach of said law, by the national legislator or internal prosecutors, with damages suffered by Italian and non-Italian parties.
We have represented victims of serious tragedies in cases of preliminary referral before the European Union Court of Justice, e.g.:
- Lawsuit C-129/19 on the right of victims of intentional violent crimes to fair and adequate state compensation: we successfully represented a girl, who was the victim of sexual harassment, against the Prime Minister’s office for the non-fulfilment of the directive 2004/80/CE.
- Lawsuit C-641/18 on the refusal of immunity from jurisdiction to ship certification/classification companies: together with external colleagues (including Professor Fausto Pocar) we endorsed the right of hundreds of victims of the sinking of the Al Salam Boccaccio ‘98 ferryboat (Red Sea, 2006) to take action in Italy against the company that had certified it as safe.
We are leading interpreters of EU Law, with special regards to the following: – jurisdiction and applicable law; – transposition rules of the Convention of Montreal (air accidents) and the Convention of Athens (sea accidents); – directives on motor vehicles insurance; – directives on the protection of crime victims; – directive on faulty products; – directive on the liability of tour operators and travel agencies.
The cooperation with the European law firms from our network (PEOPIL, Legal Abroad, Global Justice Network) provides us with constant updating on the fulfilment and interpretation of the EU Law in member states.
We strenuously fight in favour of the cooperation between national and European judges (Court of Justice of the European Union and European Court of Human Rights) (see Italian Supreme Court -Cassazione Civile-, Section III, 11th Feb 2023, n. 13883).
Professor Marco Bona has collaborated with the European Parliament Legal Affairs Committee as an expert. Together with Prof. Jenny Papettas (UK) he is the author of the study EU Harmonisation of Limitation Periods for Claims Arising out of Cross-Border Road Traffic Accidents (July 2016), commissioned by the European Added Value Unit of the Directorate for Impact Assessment and European Added Value of the European Parliament.