EU Law - State Liability

State liability is slightly different from direct effect because rather than suing an emanation of the state they are suing that member state itself.

We know that directives have vertical direct effect but not horizontal direct effect especially when there is no national law in place. In the case of Francovich this was a real problem as he wanted to enforce his rights against a bank which was a private entity. When this wasn't possible he instead decided to sue the state directly and the European Court of Justice allowed this when the following conditions are met:
The directive gives rights to individuals
The rights are identifiable within the directive
Causal link between the failure to implement the directive and the damage suffered
Francovich concerned the non-implementation of directives but in Brasserie du Pêcheur and Factortame [1996] it was applied in relation to all forms of EU law although the condition was added that the breach must be sufficiently serious

State liability can come up as an essay question in terms of how liable the state is for the actions of the judiciary but is also likely to come up indirectly regarding questions of article 258 and the enforcement of Community law.