What Role for Administrative Courts in Granting Effective Legal Protection in the Energy Sector?

This article develops a normative framework for assessing the role of the national administrative courts in reviewing regulatory decisions involving complex legal and economic assessments in the energy sector. It elaborates in a detailed way the requirements that follow from the EU law principle of effective legal protection that should be respected by the national courts. By way of illustration, it assesses an important judgment of the highest administrative court for energy cases in the Netherlands - the Trade and Industry Appeals Tribunal (hereafter: CBB) - in light of the principle of effective legal protection.