"Explaining legitimacy transfer from the German federal constitutional court to the European Court of Justice: Focus group evidence from East and West"

Grosskopf, Anke. (2001) "Explaining legitimacy transfer from the German federal constitutional court to the European Court of Justice: Focus group evidence from East and West". In: UNSPECIFIED, Madison, Wisconsin. (Unpublished)

Preview

PDF Download (1617Kb) | Preview

Abstract

As the power of constitutional courts all over the world is increasing, we still know very little about support for emergent courts and especially support for supranational courts develops. So in order to better understand the development of support for constitutional courts, this paper compares the sources of confidence in constitutional courts in four cases. The comparison extends both cross-nationally and cross-institutionally by contrasting public support a well-established constitutional court-the Federal Constitutional Court or the Bundesverfassungsgericht in West Germany-to support for three emergent courts-the Bundesverfassungsgericht in East Germany and the European Court of Justice in both West and East Germany. Building on previous research that demonstrated a link between support for the national and the supranational link, the legitimacy transfer hypothesis is tested against additional evidence ... [t]he present study supplements the first part of the research with qualitative data obtained from focus group interviews. Based on preliminary results form a series of focus groups conducted in West Germany (the East German focus groups will follow soon), people do indeed make a functional connection between the national and the supranational court. Unlike the other institutions of government both courts are seen as that are fundamentally trustworthy. The European Court of Justice is considered as the functional equivalent of the Federal Constitutional Court at a different level of government. Even though the results are still preliminary (the East German focus groups have yet to be conducted), the evidence corroborates the legitimacy transfer hypothesis.

Actions (login required)