The European Court of Justice and democratic control in the European Union
By: COSTA, Olivier
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ArticlePublisher: Oxfordshire : Routledge, October 2003Journal of European Public Policy 10, 5, p. 740-761Abstract: From a legal point of view, European integration concerned the citizens at a very early stage. This explains why law specialists have always tended to deny the fact that there would be any democratic deficit in the EU. They underline the various legal ways the Court of Justice can be asked by any member state or private individual to pass a judgment over the legality of acts adopted by the EC, and even to challenge some of the decisions made by its institutions. However, such researchers do not propose much quantitative or qualitative analysis of individual direct litigation. The aim of this article is to go beyond legal reasoning and to assess the concrete possibilities for citizens to go to the Court. The analysis reveals a great asymmetry between the capacity of European citizens to resort to European law and shows that the impact of the ECJ on the democratization of the EU is, at least in that respect, marginal.
From a legal point of view, European integration concerned the citizens at a very early stage. This explains why law specialists have always tended to deny the fact that there would be any democratic deficit in the EU. They underline the various legal ways the Court of Justice can be asked by any member state or private individual to pass a judgment over the legality of acts adopted by the EC, and even to challenge some of the decisions made by its institutions. However, such researchers do not propose much quantitative or qualitative analysis of individual direct litigation. The aim of this article is to go beyond legal reasoning and to assess the concrete possibilities for citizens to go to the Court. The analysis reveals a great asymmetry between the capacity of European citizens to resort to European law and shows that the impact of the ECJ on the democratization of the EU is, at least in that respect, marginal.
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