C-43/75. This case concerned whether (what is now) Art. 141 of the ECTreaty could be invoked by a priviate citizen in the national courts. That it, whether this provision had DirectEffect. In VanGendEnLoos1963 it had been held that Treaty provisions could have direct effect so long as they were inter alia clear and negative. However, Art. 141, which requires member states to implement ``the principle that men and women should receive equal pay for equal work'', in neither negative nor particularly clear. The member states and the Commission all entered submissions that the ECJ should not allow this provision to have direct effect.
However, the ECJ did hold it to be directly effective. It suggested that Art. 141 was not precise enough to allow a ruling on a complex question of fact but, where the factual issues were themselves clear, the general principle -- of non-discrimination -- is justiciable.
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