Sky-high controversy and high-flying claims? The Sturgeon case law in light of judicial activism, euroscepticism and eurolegalism

Publishers Abstract:
City hopping across the European continent to catch the carnival in Venice, to grab a concert in Vienna or to go on a pub-crawl in Prague is no longer the exclusive domain of the jetsetters. The competitive prices and no-frills procedures of European low cost airlines such as Ryanair, Easyjet and Wizzair have made air travel an accessible means of transportation. In addition, the low-budget air carriers have opened up new airports at places outside the main metropolitan areas and established new pan-European connections, sometimes even to the most outlying places in Europe.

These developments have not only made intra-European mobility more feasible, facilitating the already mobile European elite, they have also brought Europe closer to the broader public, fostering a fundamental transformation in the way common citizens perceive distances and, as such, Europe. All this could be projected to deepen and promote European integration; it is therefore not surprising that, at least initially, the low cost carriers and the EU had a loving relationship.