Constitutive Cases : Marbury v. Madison Meets Van Gend & Loos

Two of the most important constitutional decisions in history, Marbury v. Madison and Van Gend amp; Loos, share common issues and reach similar results. Marbury is as well known to U.S. jurists as Van Gend is to European jurists. However few people are familiar with both decisions. This article presents a comparison of the two decisions to see what can be discovered by the comparison. It concludes that the two decisions take different routes to the same goal but that Van Gend is both bolder and more defensible. Thus the comparison may provide some creative insights to jurists on both sides of the atlantic. There is something to learn from both decisions and the different methods they employ are complementary