La réinvention du droit de l’Union européenne par les acteurs juridiques nationaux : le cas de l’intention du législateur en common law

peer reviewedIn this article, it is proposed to take the differences in the practice of EU law seriously. The aim is not to construct a ‘correct’ content of European legal rules, concepts and methods, which would be different from their content in the legal practices studied, neither to discover the economic and political interests ‘hidden’ behind the use of EU legal arguments. The local practices of EU law are studied in their own discursive and cultural context. Their interpretation gives us important information on the legal cultures in which these practices evolve, but also on EU law and EU integration. The proposed approach is exemplified through the narration of the story of purposive interpretation in the common law. This technique, typical of Continental systems and of the case law of the ECJ, was long rejected in the common law as a prohibited trespassing of the limits of judicial competence. Its reception under the influence of European law has been the vector of a significant transformation of the common law into a rational legal order based on substantive values. While this proves that convergence between European legal systems is possible, it also shows that this convergence does not necessary imply the advancement of socio-political integration in Europe. Once received in the common law, the technique of purposive interpretation is reinvented to serve common lawyers’ goals, which do not always coincide with those of European institutions and of the ECJ

Local meanings of proportionality : judicial review in France, England and Greece

Defence date: 19 September 2018Examining Board: Prof. Bruno De Witte, Maastricht University/EUI (Supervisor); Prof. Loïc Azoulai, Sciences Po Paris; Associate Prof. Jacco Bomhoff, LSE; Prof. Guillaume Tusseau, Science Po ParisThe author was awarded the Mauro Cappelletti Prize for the best doctoral thesis in the field of comparative law (June 2019)Proportionality increasingly dominates legal imagination. Initially conceived of as a principle that regulates police action, today it is progressively established as an advanced tool of liberal constitutional science. Its spread, accompanied by a global paradigm of constitutional rights, appears to be an irresistible natural development. This thesis was inspired by the intuition that even though courts and lawyers around the world reason more and more in proportionality terms, proportionality can mean very different things in different contexts, even within the same legal system. While the relevant literature has paid little attention to differences in the use of proportionality, identifying the local meanings of proportionality is crucial to making sense of its spread, to assessing its success, and to appraising the possibility of convergence between legal systems. Through an in-depth study and comparison of the use of proportionality by legal actors in France, England and Greece, this work shows that the local meanings of proportionality are not simply deviant applications of a global model. Instead, they reflect the legal cultures in which they evolve, local paths of cultural change and local patterns of Europeanisation. La proportionnalité a progressivement pris une place centrale dans l’imaginaire juridique. Initialement conçue comme un principe qui régit l’utilisation des pouvoirs de police, elle est aujourd’hui considérée comme un outil avancé de science constitutionnelle. Sa généralisation, accompagnée par le paradigme du droit constitutionnel global, est perçue comme irrésistible et naturelle. Cette recherche a été guidée par l’intuition que, même si les juristes à travers le monde raisonnent de plus en plus en termes de proportionnalité, celle-ci peut avoir des sens très différents, et ce, même au sein d’un seul système juridique. Les différentes utilisations du langage de la proportionnalité sont rarement étudiées en tant que tels. Pour autant, l’identification des sens locaux de la proportionnalité est cruciale si l’on veut comprendre sa propagation, apprécier son succès et évaluer les possibilités de convergence entre systèmes juridiques. Ce travail consiste en une étude approfondie et comparative de l’utilisation du langage de la proportionnalité parmi les acteurs juridiques en France, en Angleterre et en Grèce. Il cherche à montrer que les sens locaux de la proportionnalité ne sont pas simplement des applications imparfaites d’un modèle global. Au contraire, ils reflètent les cultures au sein desquelles ils évoluent, des chemins d’évolution culturelle propres à chaque système et des trajectoires locales d’européanisation

Short-term effects of angiotensin receptor-neprilysin inhibitors on diastolic strain and tissue doppler parameters in heart failure patients with reduced ejection fraction: A pilot trial

OBJECTIVE: Although sacubitril/valsartan has recently shown its long-term benefits on morbidity and mortality in symptomatic patients with chronic heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF), its short-term effects on diastolic function remain uncertain. We sought to assess 30-day effects of sacubitril/valsartan on left ventricular (LV) diastolic paremeters determined by speckle tracking and tissue Doppler imaging (STI and TDI respectively) as well as their association with functional capacity change evaluated by peak oxygen uptake (VO2max) in stable patients with symptomatic HFrEF. METHODS: A total of 35 patients (aged 61 ± 9 years) eligible for sacubitril/valsartan underwent a complete two-dimension (2D) echocardiographic study and a cardiopulmonary exercise test at baseline and 30 days after the initiation of therapy. RESULTS: Significant improvements in ratio of trans-mitral inflow early diastolic velocity E to mitral annulus early diastolic velocity E' (ΔΕ//Ε' = -35.9%, p = 0.001), peak early diastolic strain rate SRE (ΔSRE = +22.5%, p = 0.024) and ratio E/SRE (ΔE/SRE = -33.2%, p = 0.025) were observed after 1-month therapy. Compared with baseline, VO2max also increased significantly by 16.7 % (p = 0.001). Baseline E/SRE and ΔE/SRE were the strongest independent predictors of VO2max improvement (beta = -0.43, p = 0.004 and beta = 0.45, p = 0.021 respectively) in the multivariate analysis. CONCLUSION: Sacubitril/valsartan was associated with early improvement in LV diastolic function determined by TDI and 2D STI. Baseline E/SRE was stronger than standard echocardiographic parameters in predicting the early benefit of sacubitril/valsartan therapy

T-wave Inversion through Inhomogeneous Voltage Diffusion within the FK3V Cardiac Model

The heart beats due to the synchronized contraction of cardiomyocytes triggered by a periodic sequence of electrical signals called action potentials, which originate in the sinoatrial node and spread through the heart's electrical system. A large body of work is devoted to modeling the propagation of the action potential and to reproducing reliably its shape and duration. Connection of computational modeling of cells to macroscopic phenomenological curves such as the electrocardiogram has been also intense, due to its clinical importancce in analyzing cardiovascular diseases. In this work we simulate the dynamics of action potential propagation using the three-variable Fenton-Karma model that can account for both normal and damaged cells through spatially inhomogeneous voltage diffusion coefficient. We monitor the action potential propagation in the cardiac tissue and calculate the pseudo-electrocardiogram that reproduces the R and T waves. The R wave amplitude varies according to a double exponential law as a function of the (spatially homogeneous, for an isotropic tissue) diffusion coefficient. The addition of spatial inhomogeneity in the diffusion coefficient by means of a defected region representing damaged cardiac cells, may result in T-wave inversion in the calculated pseudo-electrocardiogram. The transition from positive to negative polarity of the T-wave is analyzed as a function of the length and the depth of the defected region.Comment: 12 pages, figures, 39 reference

A04-1 Myocardial adrenergic innervation in patients with unexplained syncope

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Increased Migration of Monocytes in Essential Hypertension Is Associated with Increased Transient Receptor Potential Channel Canonical Type 3 Channels

Increased transient receptor potential canonical type 3 (TRPC3) channels have been observed in patients with essential hypertension. In the present study we tested the hypothesis that increased monocyte migration is associated with increased TRPC3 expression. Monocyte migration assay was performed in a microchemotaxis chamber using chemoattractants formylated peptide Met-Leu-Phe (fMLP) and tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α). Proteins were identified by immunoblotting and quantitative in-cell Western assay. The effects of TRP channel-inhibitor 2–aminoethoxydiphenylborane (2-APB) and small interfering RNA knockdown of TRPC3 were investigated. We observed an increased fMLP-induced migration of monocytes from hypertensive patients compared with normotensive control subjects (246±14% vs 151±10%). The TNF-α-induced migration of monocytes in patients with essential hypertension was also significantly increased compared to normotensive control subjects (221±20% vs 138±18%). In the presence of 2-APB or after siRNA knockdown of TRPC3 the fMLP-induced monocyte migration was significantly blocked. The fMLP-induced changes of cytosolic calcium were significantly increased in monocytes from hypertensive patients compared to normotensive control subjects. The fMLP-induced monocyte migration was significantly reduced in the presence of inhibitors of tyrosine kinase and phosphoinositide 3-kinase. We conclude that increased monocyte migration in patients with essential hypertension is associated with increased TRPC3 channels

Justice, responsabilité et contrôle de la décision publique

La crise sanitaire que nous traversons, sans doute encore davantage que les autres crises sanitaires avant elle, au-delà des adaptations en droit qu’elle a imposées, a mis et met encore à l’épreuve ce que le droit prévoit en matière de contrôle de la décision publique. Elle en souligne les potentialités mais aussi les limites et invite, peut-être, à repenser les mécanismes qui le caractérisent ou les concepts qui le sous-tendent. Il s’agira ainsi de tirer les leçons de la crise sanitaire en envisageant, en droit, la question de la responsabilité et le contrôle de la décision publique (son objet comme ses modalités) par les citoyens et tous ceux qui s’expriment en leur nom, qu’il s’agisse des parlements ou de la justice