Organized interests and legal mobilization in the European courts network

Project Description

The project aims to answer the question under what conditions, for what purposes and in what form organized interests utilize the legal system. An extensive literature at the intersection of law and political science has, under the banner of keywords such as juridification, legal mobilization and strategic litigation, addressed the question under what conditions and with what outcomes the law is resorted to in order to influence political decisions. The project seeks to extend the state of research in three ways. First, the project adopts a comparative, actor-centered perspective that includes not only associations and NGOs, but also firms as actors that have so far only rarely been considered by studies on legal mobilization. Second, a particular focus is laid on the relevance of European Union Law and fundamental rights in a strategy of judicialized advocacy. Third, and relatedly, the project investigates the repercussions of the structure of the European judicial network on the strategic action of organized interests. In this compound structure of courts and jurisprudence, the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union and the European Convention of Human Rights exist alongside national constitutions as additional fundamental rights catalogues which individuals and organizations can invoke to derive legal claims and to assert fundamental rights violations. At the same time, several independent but interdependent apex courts coexist  – in the case of Germany these are the Federal Constitutional Court, the European Court of Justice and the European Court of Human Rights. These courts review alleged fundamental rights violations based on different standards and hence generate opportunities for strategic litigation. Furthermore, national courts are agents for the application and enforcement of Union law – in particular where acts of public authority are concerned. In cases where the interpretation of Union law is in question, this gives organized interests access to the European Court of Justice through the preliminary reference proceeding.

The project employs a mixed methods design. In a first step, explorative interviews with representatives of 30 organizations serve to analyze the intentions, objectives and organization-internal assessments behind the mobilization of law and the situational, contextual factors that influence the strategic considerations. In a second step, a survey of approximately 2000 organizations based in Germany will be fielded. The survey is meant to provide insights into prior experience with legal disputes, the organizational resources and decision-making procedures and the relative significance of legal action for interest representation. Through an actor-centered perspective on the phenomenon of legal mobilization that combines qualitative and quantitative approaches, the project bridges a gap between interest group research and the interdisciplinary research on law and politics and provides novel insights into the mechanisms of legal mobilization in the context of democratic interest representation.