Original scientific paper
STATES AS SUCCESSFUL LITIGANTS BEFORE THE EUROPEAN COURT OF JUSTICE: LESSONS FROM THE ‘REPEAT PLAYERS’ OF EUROPEAN LITIGATION
Marie-Pierre Granger
Abstract
Despite the importance of the role of the European Court
of Justice (ECJ) in European integration, its decision-making process
is little studied. In particular, the interactions between the political
and the legal arena deserve greater attention. Member States’ governments
and the ECJ are usually presented as two separate and
competing entities, whilst in fact there is a great deal of interaction
between these two institutional actors. This article, based on extensive
comparative empirical research, uses US sociolegal scholarship
on litigation to analyse governments’ litigation in a way which contributes
to current theoretical understandings of judicial decision-making,
European integration and Europeanisation. It identifi es, describes,
compares and analyses governments’ EU litigation strategies, in order
to assess whether and how governments infl uence European legal
developments through litigation. It also stresses the need for governments
of the new Member States and candidate countries to understand
the importance of adopting a strong and consistent EU litigation
strategy, so as to play their part in the development of EU law.
Keywords
Hrčak ID:
28515
URI
Publication date:
3.11.2006.
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