The European Court of Justice and judicial lawmaking: Constitutionalizing Europe's legal order after the 'constitutional compromise'

The model of context analysis proposed in this research project offers a systematic analytical framework for approaching and assessing the role of law in Europe. It differs significantly from 'classical' rationalist, actor-centered, or interest-based expl anatory patterns in the way it takes an internal perspective on European law. From this point of view, the question is no longer about which actors prevail in implementing their interests, or which causal mechanisms are at work in lawmaking, but about the options and limitations of reasoning and action inherent in a particular context. More concretely, a context analysis concerns itself with how a legal framework, especially the European one, functions; how it changes over time, and how it imposes demands for reasoning and action on actors, judicial as well as political ones. As a contribution to the current discussion about 'integration through law', the project aims to closely examine a number of currently discussed landmark cases. By doing so, it will be shown that these decisions can be seen as building blocks in the ongoing legal expansion of European law, and should therefore be highly relevant to the further development Europe's legal order after the 'constitutional compromise.' The premise of a co ntextual approach towards these contemporary jurisprudential developments will be to first draw a convincing picture of the ECJ's role in this process, and second, to shed light on the ongoing constitutionalization that will be of great importance to the progress of integration in the coming years. For this purpose, the above mentioned legal cases will be contextualized and systematically examined in their historical, functional, and local aspects. The project will be also drawing on a number of interview s the applicant conducted with judges and members of the scientific staff of the ECJ in the spring of 2011.