030125 SE How the European Court of Justice Thinks (2018S)

It is widely acknowledged that the European Court of Justice has served as a major engine of European integration. Since the 1960s, at any rate, the Court has been the wellspring of ideas that helped to transform the original European common market into an instrument of constitutional significance. While the innovations made by the court used to be mostly welcomed by legal scholars, there has been a dearth of analysis as to whether what the Court has done in salient cases can be regarded as „legal interpretation“ or “law application”. What if it could not? Would the designation as a “court” turn out to be misnomer for an institution that is in fact engaged in projects of social engineering? The seminar would like to explore the reasoning of the Court in greater depth by looking at seminal cases.