Preliminary References - Analyzing the Determinants that Made the ECJ the Powerful Court It Is

32 Pages Posted: 16 May 2011 Last revised: 13 Aug 2013

See all articles by Lars Hornuf

Lars Hornuf

Technische Universität Dresden; CESifo (Center for Economic Studies and Ifo Institute)

Stefan Voigt

University of Hamburg - Institute of Law & Economics; CESifo (Center for Economic Studies and Ifo Institute)

Date Written: March 2012

Abstract

The European Court of Justice (ECJ) is a very powerful court compared to other international courts and even national courts of last resort. Observers almost unanimously agree that it is the preliminary references procedure that made the ECJ the powerful court it is today. In this paper, we analyze the determinants that lead national courts to use the procedure. We add to previous studies by constructing a comprehensive panel dataset (1982–2008), including more potentially relevant explanatory variables and by testing for the robustness of previous results. In addition to confirming the relevance of variables previously found significant, we identify a number of additional determinants, including the relevance of agriculture to a country, corporate tax rate, familiarity with EU law, and tenure of democracy.

Keywords: European Court of Justice, economic analysis of court behavior, preliminary reference procedure

JEL Classification: H770, K330

Suggested Citation

Hornuf, Lars and Voigt, Stefan, Preliminary References - Analyzing the Determinants that Made the ECJ the Powerful Court It Is (March 2012). CESifo Working Paper Series No. 3769, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1843364 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1843364

Lars Hornuf

Technische Universität Dresden ( email )

Dresden, 01307
Germany

HOME PAGE: http://www.hornuf.com

CESifo (Center for Economic Studies and Ifo Institute) ( email )

Poschinger Str. 5
Munich, DE-81679
Germany

Stefan Voigt (Contact Author)

University of Hamburg - Institute of Law & Economics ( email )

Johnsallee 35
Hamburg, 20148
Germany
+49-40-428385782 (Phone)
+49-40-428386794 (Fax)

CESifo (Center for Economic Studies and Ifo Institute)

Poschinger Str. 5
Munich, DE-81679
Germany

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