A 'Selfie' from Luxembourg: The Court of Justice and the Fabrication of the Pre-Accession Case-Law Dossiers

29 Pages Posted: 20 Jan 2016 Last revised: 12 Apr 2017

See all articles by Urska Sadl

Urska Sadl

European University Institute - Department of Law (LAW); University of Copenhagen - iCourts - Centre of Excellence for International Courts

Mikael Madsen

University of Copenhagen - iCourts - Centre of Excellence for International Courts; University of Copenhagen - Faculty of Law

Date Written: January 19, 2016

Abstract

How does the European Court of Justice view itself? Which cases does it regard as most important? The question has riddled EU scholarship for decades. Due to a basic lack of empirical evidence, which is in part a consequence of secrecy surrounding the Court, no empirically firm answer has been provided. In this article we seek to close this gap in scholarship by using a unique data-set, compiled by the Court. We use a set of quantitative and qualitative methods to unpack the so-called historic case-law dossiers assembled by the Court, and presented to thirteen member states upon accessions in 2004, 2007 and 2013. We reconstruct the content of the selection as well as the rather specific legal EU that they project. From our empirical analysis, framed by social science theories on the relationship between knowledge and power, it follows that this was not a neutral compilation of what EU law is. On the contrary, the Court seized the opportunity to highlight its own role in the formation of the EU legal order. At the receiving end, the importance of the dossier was not in the detailed legal knowledge to facilitate the transition to the EU, but primarily the institutional knowledge on who were the real masters of the Treaties.

Keywords: Court of Justice of the EU, historic case-law, citation network analysis, judicial self-portrait, constitutionalization

Suggested Citation

Sadl, Urska and Madsen, Mikael, A 'Selfie' from Luxembourg: The Court of Justice and the Fabrication of the Pre-Accession Case-Law Dossiers (January 19, 2016). The Columbia Journal of European Law (2016), Forthcoming, iCourts Working Paper Series No. 40, University of Copenhagen Faculty of Law Research Paper No. 2016-18, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2718101 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2718101

Urska Sadl

European University Institute - Department of Law (LAW) ( email )

Via Bolognese 156 (Villa Salviati)
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Italy
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University of Copenhagen - iCourts - Centre of Excellence for International Courts ( email )

Studiestraede 6
Copenhagen, DK-1455
Denmark

Mikael Madsen (Contact Author)

University of Copenhagen - iCourts - Centre of Excellence for International Courts ( email )

University of Copenhagen - Faculty of Law ( email )

Studiestraede 6
Studiestrade 6
Copenhagen, DK-1455
Denmark

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