Solange II decision

The Solange II decision was a 1986 ruling of Germany's Federal Constitutional Court holding that, so long as the European Communities, in particular through the case law of the European Court of Justice, generally ensured effective protection of fundamental rights substantially comparable to that guaranteed by Germany's own Constitution, the Constitutional Court would no longer review European Community legislation against the standard of German fundamental rights. It reversed the conditional stance the same court had taken in its 1974 Solange I decision, which had reserved the power to conduct such review because Community level protection of fundamental rights was not yet considered adequate. Solange II became a foundational precedent for how national constitutional courts across Europe manage the relationship between domestic rights protection and an integrating legal order.