Mobilizing European Law

Publication Date

5-30-2017

Document Type

Article

Organizational Units

College of Arts Humanities and Social Sciences, Political Science

Keywords

European convention on human rights, European Union, Law and politics, Legal mobilization

Abstract

The literature on European legal mobilization asks why individuals, groups and companies go to court and explores the impact of litigation on policy, institutions and the balance of power among actors. Surveying the literature we find that legal mobilization efforts vary across policy areas and jurisdictions. This article introduces a three-level theoretical framework that organizes research on the causes of these variations: macro-level systemic factors that originate in Europe; meso-level factors that vary nationally; and micro-level factors that characterize the actors engaged in (or disengaged from) litigation. We argue that until we understand more about how and why different parties mobilize law, it is difficult to respond to normative questions about whether European legal mobilization is a positive or negative development for democracy and rights.

Copyright Date

5-30-2017

Copyright Statement / License for Reuse

All Rights Reserved
All Rights Reserved.

Rights Holder

Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group

Provenance

Received from author

Language

English (eng)

Extent

14 pgs

Publication Statement

Copyright held by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. User is responsible for all copyright compliance.

Publication Title

Journal of European Public Policy

Volume

25

First Page

1376

Last Page

1389

ISSN

1466-4429

Link to Full Text

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