Project Details
Projekt
Courts as Governors in the Internal Market? – the interaction between judicial control and competence
Applicant
Professorin Dr. Susanne K. Schmidt
Subject Area
Political Science
Term
since 2024
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 532657320
Member state governments exercise considerable control over the delegation of competence to the European Union (EU). In addition, the EU relies on member state administrations to implement its policies. This gives Member States (MS) further leeway in interpreting and implementing EU competences. However, MS cannot simply ignore their obligations under European law. Through infringement proceedings before the European Court of Justice (ECJ) or through national courts and possibly preliminary ruling proceedings, actors can sue for compliance with European law obligations. The project examines this judicial control of Member States' implementation of EU law using the example of various policies in the field of the internal market. It asks when actors activate this judicial control and what difference this makes with respect to the implementation and enforcement of EU law, but also for the design of these EU law obligations (‘competence’) themselves. Case law, which arises through judgments, specifies existing law and also changes it. Control thus has an effect on the shaping of competence. This is particularly true whenever empty compromises have only apparently resolved conflicts in the legislative process. De facto, their clarification is then delegated to courts, which must find an interpretation in case of dispute. A similar situation arises when laws are not reformed despite changed conditions, but their adaptation is implicitly entrusted to administrations and courts. This subproject analyzes the development towards an integration characterized by control, being the focus of the Research Unit (RU), with regard to the interaction of judicial control and the definition of competence. Member state control over the transfer of competence is shifting towards a judicial shaping of competence, which is less controllable by the MS. Together with two PhD students, this shift is analyzed in three steps: (1) When is judicial control activated, when do potential litigants (the Commission, private and public actors) address the courts? (2) When and how do member-state actors react to court rulings, does litigating EU-law make a difference to how MS actors as intermediaries for the EU governor enact EU competence? (3) When does a shift in competence, in the way things ought to be done, result from the evolving European case law, so that judicial rather than political actors define the rules? The project analyzes the interaction of judicial control and competence development on the basis of case studies on three policies (social security coordination, railroad policy and services directive) in Germany and France as well as selected other MS. The initially qualitative project with partly explorative aims can benefit greatly from the close interaction with European law as well as the plurality of methods in the RU.
DFG Programme
Research Units
