From Close-Ups to Long Shot

Abstract

In a context in which EU case law is increasingly politicized, this chapter questions our analytical equipment when it comes to understanding the ‘political role’ of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU). Moving from close-ups to long shot views of EU case-lawyering, the chapter repositions judicial decision-making in a dense web of political, social, and professional ramifications within and outside the Court itself. By articulating micro, meso, and macro levels of analysis, it escapes ontological discussions about the political nature of the Court (‘neoliberal’, ‘federalist’, etc.) and suggests a research strategy able to empirically measure and geographically map out the Court’s embeddedness in Europe’s laws, politics, and societies.