Commentary on the judgment of the Court of Justice of the European Union of 26 February 2015 in the case C-472/13, Andre Lawrence Shepherd v Bundesrepublik Deutschland

The text comments on the Court of Justice of the European Union judgment of 26 February 2015 in the case C-472/13, Andre Lawrence Shepherd v Bundesrepublik Deutschland. The judgment was delivered within the framework of the preliminary ruling procedure following the request from the Bayerisches Verwaltungsgericht München. A.L. Shephered was a former US soldier who had deserted from the US Army and applied for refugee status in Germany as he opposed further service in Iraq due to the fear of committing war crimes. The judgment commented on places itself within the growing case-law of the CJEU interpreting the secondary EU legislation in asylum policies. As such – although remaining to some extent untypical – it deserves analysis that results in identification of some shortcomings of the reasoning.