The European Court of Justice as political actor in intergovernmental coordination

Fazekas, János (2024) The European Court of Justice as political actor in intergovernmental coordination. JOURNAL OF COMPARATIVE POLITICS, 17. pp. 5-18. ISSN 1337-7477

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Abstract

The European Court of Justice (ECJ) isn’t a political actor, nonetheless, can play a role in solving political debates. ECJ makes rulings on political issues decided by EU bodies. Although ECJ has never elaborated a comprehensive political question doctrine, it did decide case-by-case whether a political problem is justiciable from the 1970’s up to now. ECJ legally reviews the operation of the Executive on EU and national level. Besides, courts usually refrain from cases of directly political substance because they cannot take over the role of political actors. The aim of the research is to examine how ECJ has tried to balance between these requirements, and in which cases did it shape European intergovernmental relations. The analysis is mainly based on court cases and their political context. Main conclusion of the research is that ECJ can make a valuable contribution to Europe on becoming a real political community.

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