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THE EUROPEAN COURT OF JUSTICE AND ITS PARTNERS. Milosz Hodun LECTURE MARATHON 2011. European Integration and the ECJ. Neutrality. In Europe courts rely on their independency. They say they are not political, not create new norms. They say they are purely legal. Legalism.
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THE EUROPEAN COURT OF JUSTICE AND ITS PARTNERS Milosz Hodun LECTURE MARATHON 2011
Neutrality • In Europe courts rely on their independency. • They say they are not political, not create new norms. • They say they are purely legal
Legalism • Legalism dominates in Europe. • “The Community is presented as juristic idea; the written constitution as a secret text; the professional commentary as a legal truth; the case law as a inevitable working out of the correct implications of the constitutional text; and the constitutional court as a disembodied voice of right reason and constitutional teleology” M. Shapiro, Courts
Contextualism • Analysis of legal and political area. • Some fundamental facets of the supranantional system took crucial strides during the first decade of the EEC when the political decision-making was numb.
Realism • The ECJ is a “technical servant” of the member state governments.
Neo-realism • The ECJ is intentionally mirroring national-interest calculation in its judging in order to gain support of the national governments for its own policy.
Neofunctionalism • The ECJ works with its subnational allies. • Lower national courts, • Private litigants, • Lawyers. • The ECJ sided with the “little guy”. • The ECJ created opportunities for the subnational actors to participate in the legal integration.
The competition-between-courts dynamic • The ECJ became a second parent for the lower national courts to which they can refer when the first one, the highests national courts, do not approve their decisions.
Neofunctionalism • The ECJ works with its supranational allies: • Transnational bussiness, • Law associations, • European Commission.
Conclusions • The ECJ played an extraordinary role in the process of European Integration. • But it has done so as a part of a complex network of actors and institutions. • Its role must be seen through its relation with national, subnational and supranational partners.