"Member State Participation before the European Court of Justice"

Richmond, Amy. (1995) "Member State Participation before the European Court of Justice". In: UNSPECIFIED, Charleston, South Carolina. (Unpublished)

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Abstract

[From the introduction]. My study will focus in particular on three claims made in the literature about member state interaction with the Court. The first claim is that member state participation was initially low and that much of the Court's constitutionalization of the Treaty occurred when member states were simply too inattentive to notice the magnitude of the Court's activity. The second claim is that early member state participation reflected a concern to protect national laws, but that this pattern of member state participation is changing as member state evince more of a desire to influence the general trend of Commmunity law. The final claim tested is that, with the Single European Act's change to qualified majority voting in the Council, member states' attitudes of acceptance toward the Court will change, and criticism of the Court will increase. This hypothesis is based on the belief that the supranationalism of the ECJ was accepted because of the intergovernmentalism of the Council. The data on member state participation suggests, however, that none of these claims provide an accurate picture of member state interaction with the Court. While there has been an increase in participation over time, member states have shown a high degree of participation in Article 177 cases from the outset. Further, trends in member states participation do not provide adequate empirical proof of a change in member state participation from self-interest to a Community interest. Finally, member states do not appear to have changed their behavior toward the Court since the passage of the Single European Act.

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