Mediation and the Right to Effective Judicial Protection in the Case-law of the Court of Justice of the European Union.

The article focuses on the case law of the Court of Justice of the European Union in relation to mandatory mediation and its compatibility with the right to effective judicial protection. It analyses the general principles formulated in the Unibet and Impact judgments, in which the Court of Justice defined the limits of procedural autonomy of Member EU Member States through the principles of equivalence and effectiveness of EU law. On that basis, it subsequently develops a framework for assessing the compatibility of mandatory mediation with EU law. The key decision in Alassini constitutes the Court of Justice’s first direct ruling on mandatory mediation, in which it recognised its admissibility under certain conditions. The subsequent Menini and Rampanelli judgment further refined the proportionality test established in Alassini and applied it for the first time to specific national legislation. The aim of this article is to critically evaluate how the Court of Justice has shaped the relationship between the right to effective judicial protection and mandatory mediation through its case law.