IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/jcmkts/v62y2024i3p744-759.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Subsidiarity Ex Ante and Ex Post: From the Early Warning System to the Court of Justice of the European Union

Author

Listed:
  • Martijn Huysmans
  • Ton van den Brink
  • Philippe van Gruisen

Abstract

The subsidiarity principle divides competences between the European Union and its Member States. The Lisbon Treaty suggests a connection between ex ante and ex post subsidiarity review. Ex ante, national parliaments were given a role via the early warning system (EWS). Ex post, legislation is subject to review by the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU). More than 10 years after Lisbon, this article is the first to theorize and evaluate whether there is indeed a connection. Our theory predicts a conditional connection. Quantitatively, we provide a two‐way classification of Member States based on their use of the EWS and CJEU subsidiarity cases. Qualitatively, we look back from court cases to the Council stage and analyse the Advocate General's opinions in subsidiarity cases. We find a weak conditional connection. A key explanation appears to be the Court's limited willingness to enforce subsidiarity and hence the limited incentives to go to court.

Suggested Citation

  • Martijn Huysmans & Ton van den Brink & Philippe van Gruisen, 2024. "Subsidiarity Ex Ante and Ex Post: From the Early Warning System to the Court of Justice of the European Union," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 62(3), pages 744-759, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:jcmkts:v:62:y:2024:i:3:p:744-759
    DOI: 10.1111/jcms.13531
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/jcms.13531
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/jcms.13531?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Angela Tacea, 2021. "From Legal to Political Reasoning: National Parliaments' Use of Reasoned Opinions in the Area of Freedom, Security and Justice," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 59(6), pages 1573-1589, November.
    2. Paul Craig, 2012. "Subsidiarity: A Political and Legal Analysis," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 50(S1), pages 72-87, March.
    3. Malang, Thomas & Brandenberger, Laurence & Leifeld, Philip, 2019. "Networks and Social Influence in European Legislative Politics," British Journal of Political Science, Cambridge University Press, vol. 49(4), pages 1475-1498, October.
    4. Martijn Huysmans, 2019. "Euroscepticism and the Early Warning System," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 57(3), pages 431-447, May.
    5. Mette Buskjær Rasmussen & Maja Kluger Dionigi, 2018. "National Parliaments’ Use of the Political Dialogue: Institutional Lobbyists, Traditionalists or Communicators?," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 56(5), pages 1108-1126, July.
    6. Thomas Horsley, 2012. "Subsidiarity and the European Court of Justice: Missing Pieces in the Subsidiarity Jigsaw?," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 50(2), pages 267-282, March.
    7. Philippe van Gruisen & Martijn Huysmans, 2020. "The Early Warning System and policymaking in the European Union," European Union Politics, , vol. 21(3), pages 451-473, September.
    8. Ian Cooper, 2006. "The Watchdogs of Subsidiarity: National Parliaments and the Logic of Arguing in the EU," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 44(2), pages 281-304, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Martijn Huysmans, 2021. "Tanja Börzel. 2021. Why Noncompliance: The Politics of Law in the European Union (Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press)," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 16(4), pages 943-946, October.
    2. Angela Tacea, 2021. "From Legal to Political Reasoning: National Parliaments' Use of Reasoned Opinions in the Area of Freedom, Security and Justice," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 59(6), pages 1573-1589, November.
    3. Tracy H. Slagter, 2009. "National Parliaments and the ECJ: A View from the Bundestag," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47(1), pages 175-197, January.
    4. Thomas Malang & Philip Leifeld, 2021. "The Latent Diffusion Network among National Parliaments in the Early Warning System of the European Union," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 59(4), pages 873-890, July.
    5. Benz, Arthur & Zimmer, Christina, . "The EU’s competences: The ‘vertical’ perspective on the multilevel system," Living Reviews in European Governance (LREG), Institute for European integration research (EIF).
    6. Philippe van Gruisen & Martijn Huysmans, 2020. "The Early Warning System and policymaking in the European Union," European Union Politics, , vol. 21(3), pages 451-473, September.
    7. Mark Furness & Stefan Gänzle, 2017. "The Security–Development Nexus in European Union Foreign Relations after Lisbon: Policy Coherence at Last?," Development Policy Review, Overseas Development Institute, vol. 35(4), pages 475-492, July.
    8. repec:bla:jcmkts:v:47:y:2009:i::p:175-197 is not listed on IDEAS
    9. van Gruisen, Philippe & Crombez, Christophe, 2021. "The Commission and the Council Presidency in the European Union: Strategic interactions and legislative powers," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).
    10. Giesing, Yvonne & Schikora, Felicitas, 2023. "Emigrants’ missing votes," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    11. Stefanie Walter & Lucy Kinski & Zsófia Boda, 2023. "Who talks to whom? Using social network models to understand debate networks in the European Parliament," European Union Politics, , vol. 24(2), pages 410-423, June.
    12. Richard E. Levy, 2017. "The law and economics of supranationalism: the European Union and the subsidiarity principle in collective action perspective," European Journal of Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 43(3), pages 441-473, June.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:jcmkts:v:62:y:2024:i:3:p:744-759. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0021-9886 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.