Altruism, Euro-Expertise and Open EU Legal Opportunity Structure: Empirical Insights on Legal Mobilization Before the CJEU in the Migration Field

25 Pages Posted: 23 Mar 2021

See all articles by virginia passalacqua

virginia passalacqua

University of Turin; New York University

Date Written: September 1, 2020

Abstract


Over the years, many theories have tried to explain the puzzle of cross-national variation in preliminary reference rates before the Court of Justice of the European Union. Some authors focused on inter-court competition, others focused on national legal culture and Euroscepticism, others highlighted the importance of judges’ attributes such as their EU legal education and workload. This article, relying on a comparison of three country case studies in the field of migration law, makes the case that in order to understand the use of the preliminary reference procedure, we must also take into account national patterns of legal mobilization. Utilizing empirical qualitative research the article identifies three national-level conditions that help explain the emergence of legal mobilization through preliminary reference: Altruism, Euro-expertise, and an open EU legal opportunity structure. The article makes both an empirical and a theoretical contribution by bridging the scholarship on legal mobilization and EU judicial politics.
This paper was awarded the Ius Commune Prize 2020, see https://www.iuscommune.eu/

Keywords: Court of Justice of the EU, legal mobilization, EU migration law, EU judicial politics, preliminary reference procedure,

Suggested Citation

passalacqua, virginia, Altruism, Euro-Expertise and Open EU Legal Opportunity Structure: Empirical Insights on Legal Mobilization Before the CJEU in the Migration Field (September 1, 2020). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3810155 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3810155

Virginia Passalacqua (Contact Author)

University of Turin ( email )

Italy

New York University ( email )

40 Washington Square South
New York, NY 10012-1099
United States

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