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Domesticating discourses: European law, English judges, and political institutions

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 July 2009

Joseph Jupille  and
James A. Caporaso
Joseph Jupille*
Affiliation:
Department of Political Science, University of Colorado, 333 UCB, Boulder, CO 80309-0333, USA
James A. Caporaso
Affiliation:
Department of Political Science, University of Washington, 101 Gowen Hall, Box 353530, Seattle, WA 98195-3530, USA
*
E-mail: jupille@colorado.edu
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Abstract

Political science research on Europeanization has focused too little on the domestic legal-constitutional implications of European legal integration. We address this relative neglect, identifying two models of the impact of European law on domestic judicial discourses and testing them against evidence on the invocation of three EU law concepts within English courts. Contrary to a statist model, which expects judicial discourses to correspond closely with direct importations of European law through the preliminary reference procedure, we find stronger support for an indigenization model in which courts gradually domesticate previously alien concepts. These domesticating discourses offer new insights into domestic political and constitutional orders in the context of European and international legalization.

Keywords

European UnionintegrationlegalizationUnited Kingdomcourts
Type
Research Article
Information
European Political Science Review , Volume 1 , Issue 2 , July 2009 , pp. 205 - 228
Copyright
Copyright © European Consortium for Political Research 2009

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