The problem of VNUK and the EU response: a critique of the law on compulsory motor vehicle insurance.

In 2014 the European Court of Justice (ECJ) delivered its ruling in the case Vnuk v Zavarovalnica Triglav, extending the scope of compulsory motor vehicle insurance. The relevant EU legislation, the Motor Vehicle Insurance Directive, imposed a duty on Member States to take all appropriate measures to ensure that civil liability in respect of the use of vehicles normally based in their territory was covered by insurance. In response to the ECJ’s judicial activism in Vnuk and subsequent cases, an amending Directive was enacted in December 2021. In this paper, we offer a critical examination of the amending law and explain how, rather than ending the uncertainty created following Vnuk, the law on compulsory motor vehicle insurance law is now replete with uncertainty and has been subject to a reversal of the most expansive and protective rights previously enjoyed by third-party victims of motor vehicle accidents.