Conceptual framework for understanding the degree and scope of the political impact of the case law of the Court of Justice of the European Union – Definition of ‘the political’ – Carl Schmitt’s concept of political realism – Chantal Mouffe’s agonistic theory of ‘the political’ – ‘The political’ in the light of three classical categories: (1) polity, (2) policy, and (3) politics – Framework for understanding polity as competing values, policy as conflicts over resources, politics as fights for power – Criteria of political significance and impact of the Court of Justice case law – Two illustrations: Case C-391/09 Runevič-Vardyn v Vilniaus miesto savivaldybės administracija and Case C-192/18 European Commission v Republic of Poland set against the broader context of politically significant cases from the Court of Justice of the European Union.

Admissibility of questions for preliminary ruling – Independence of courts and tribunals in the case law of the Court of Justice of the European Union as Dorsch Consult criterion under Article 267 TFEU – Independence of courts and tribunals in the case law of the Court of Justice of the European Union as element of the Rule of Law value under Article 19 TEU – Structural inadmissibility of questions for preliminary ruling as perverse consequence of the attempts to safeguard independence of the EU judiciary

Foreign surveillance as a means of circumventing existing legal safeguards – Different perspectives on the problem of the extraterritorial application of fundamental rights in US and EU legal models – The limited usefulness of effective control tests for establishing the responsibility of states for action taken in cyberspace – Judgment of Bundesverfassungsgericht in the BND Act case as an interpretative guideline for the regulation of foreign surveillance in EU member states – Electronic surveillance as a threat to European integration process.

Authority of the European Central Bank (the Bank) over its operational norms in the eyes of market actors – Exogenous and endogenous authority and legitimacy – The reconciliation by the Bank and the Court of Justice of the EU (the Court) of the pre-existing norm and political-economic reality with Article 123 TFEU – Sovereign lender of last resort – Eurozone Crisis – Outright Monetary Transactions (OMT) – Public Sector Purchase Programme (PSPP) – Pandemic Emergency Purchase Programme (PEPP)