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The European Court of Justice as a political actor
Vikarská, Zuzana ; Kysela, Jan (advisor) ; Ondřejková, Jana (referee)
The ECJ as a Political Actor In both the US and in the EU, the judiciary is often accused of being political. This thesis does not attempt to compare and contrast the two grand judiciaries; they are too dissimilar to be compared in this context. It only deals with the judiciary of the EU, trying to analyse its presumably 'political' character: why is it that political and legal scholars label the Court as 'political' or 'activist'? This thesis seeks to investigate the validity of these accusations by proposing a synthesis of various political theories and a certain clarification of the terminology in the context of the European judiciary. Chapter 1 deals with the ECJ as an institution, discussing its functioning and its presumably constitutional character. Chapter 2 then focuses on the notions of 'politics' and 'political', firstly in terms of their definitions by various authors and consequently in terms of the various political theories of European integration. Chapter 3 then deals with the central question of the thesis: is the ECJ a political actor or not? The analysis in the third chapter is split into five dimensions: (1) the judges' motivations in adjudication, (2) the appointment of judges, (3) the subject-matter of the Court's adjudication, (4) the institutional balance within the Union,...
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The European Court of Justice as a political actor
Vikarská, Zuzana ; Kysela, Jan (advisor) ; Ondřejková, Jana (referee)
The ECJ as a Political Actor In both the US and in the EU, the judiciary is often accused of being political. This thesis does not attempt to compare and contrast the two grand judiciaries; they are too dissimilar to be compared in this context. It only deals with the judiciary of the EU, trying to analyse its presumably 'political' character: why is it that political and legal scholars label the Court as 'political' or 'activist'? This thesis seeks to investigate the validity of these accusations by proposing a synthesis of various political theories and a certain clarification of the terminology in the context of the European judiciary. Chapter 1 deals with the ECJ as an institution, discussing its functioning and its presumably constitutional character. Chapter 2 then focuses on the notions of 'politics' and 'political', firstly in terms of their definitions by various authors and consequently in terms of the various political theories of European integration. Chapter 3 then deals with the central question of the thesis: is the ECJ a political actor or not? The analysis in the third chapter is split into five dimensions: (1) the judges' motivations in adjudication, (2) the appointment of judges, (3) the subject-matter of the Court's adjudication, (4) the institutional balance within the Union,...
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