The Court of Justice of the European Union in EU Politics

Contrary to a legalistic reading of the role of courts in political systems, which would consider that judges are nothing more than the mouthpiece of the law, this chapter assumes that the Court has engaged in European Union (EU) politics in two different and complementary ways. Firstly, normative approaches show that the Court, through its rulings and interpretations of law, has contributed to shaping the law and public policies of the EU in a way that strongly impacted the EU political system. While some authors argue that the Court is biased towards supranational integration and the market, others defend the idea that its jurisprudence is more diverse and constrained by the law. Secondly, actor-centred approaches look at the interactions between the Court and the other actors of European integration, discussing the way the Court has affected the institutional balance in the EU. Particular attention is paid to the question of the Court's legitimacy, which in our view derives from both the Member States and the broader public.