The Halifax References: Departure or Arrival?

Finally it's out. But there is an understandable sense of anti-climax. As with a novel that has been extensively serialised in the Sunday papers ahead of publication we already knew the shape of the plot and the outcome. When the Halifax series of cases was begun (in 2000) it was not known whether abuse of right was even a real part of European law: but that was confirmed in Emsland Starke C-110/99 in December 2000. Then it was still not known whether abuse could enter the world of VAT but that was later confirmed in Gemeente...