Who Cares About Nationality? The Path-dependent Case Law of the ECJ from Goods to Citizens
Thursday March 10, 2011, from 14:00 to 16:00
Room 4 - IBEI
Research seminar
Susanne K. Schmidt (Bremen International Graduate School of Social Sciences)
The role that the ECJ plays for European
integration has been much discussed by political scientists. Less is known
about how case law develops. In this article, I give a
historical-institutionalist account, arguing that path-dependency explains its
course. Litigants provide positive feedback in this process, aiming to
strengthen their rights by transferring legal arguments from one area to the
next, leading to a convergent interpretation of the different freedoms. The
paper traces this development, analyzing how legal arguments were transferred
from goods markets to the free movement of workers and citizenship, as a result
of positive feedback to a distinct legal interpretation. I discard alternative
explanations that explain case law by drawing on the preferences of Member
states or judges.