The ECJ's 'Remedies Jurisprudence' and the role of domestic courts - how to transfer principle alongside competence

Almost from the start, the development of unjust enrichment in England and Wales, particularly in cases involving public authorities, and the development of the so-called ‘Remedies Jurisprudence’ in the EU have had a significant impact on each other. From Lord Goff’s determination in Woolwich to ensure that domestic claimants would be as well provided for as those claiming under EU law, to the significance of Rewe I and Comet (both about repayment of unlawful charges) for the development of the EU’s ‘remedies’ jurisprudence, one cannot fully understand the development of either area without paying attention to their mutual influence. And yet there is sometimes a tendency for either EU ‘remedies’ lawyers or domestic unjust enrichment lawyers to lose sight of this. This paper attempts to refocus attention on this history in order to examine the roles that might be played by the courts of each system in the future, whatever the relationship of the UK with the EU turns out to be