The Reference Points of EU Judicial Politics

Explanations of the dynamics of EU judicial politics must also account for its incidence, namely when and in which sectors litigation of EU law and ECJ judgments occur. This incidence, it is suggested relies on a relationship between three arenas, those for norm-setting, litigation and judgments, as events in each of these arena conditions possibilities for action in the others. This paper analyses the relationship between these arenas through a study of all 2007-9 preliminary rulings and finds EU judicial politics characterised by two predominant dynamics. ‘Patrol norms’ dedicated to securing common policies give rise to low salient judgments dominated by transnational enterprise and national administration litigation. ‘Thickly evaluative norms’ are concerned with articulating certain values. Dominated by litigation by domestic undertakings and non-commercial actors, these norms generate the Court’s salient judgments.