The impact of the european court of justice on neighbouring countries

Abstract

This book explores the impact of the judgments of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) outside the borders of the EU on the legal systems of countries in the European neighbourhood. Considering that ‘export’ of some of the acquis communautaire to neighbouring countries appears to be an EU policy objective, and that legal approximation provisions are included in all of the EU’s agreements with these countries, one must ask whether this objective applies also to EU case law, or only to written laws and regulations. If actual harmonization of rules and standards is desired, the rules must be interpreted and implemented similarly to how this is done in the EU. And where CJEU judgments are cited and followed in neighbouring countries, what are the factors bringing about such influence? Is it a result of these international obligations of legal approximation, or are other, more unilateral and spontaneous modes of influence of CJEU judgments at work, such as territorial extension or the ‘Brussels Effect’? We have brought together scholars from the countries involved who have each explored, documented, and analysed the extent of citing of CJEU judgments in their respective country and assessed what influence such judgments have had on their legal systems. The contributions cover the legal systems of Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Israel, Jordan, Russia, Switzerland, Tunisia, Turkey, and Ukraine, and also the Eurasian Economic Union. There are also chapters on the modes of external influence of the CJEU, and on how the CJEU uses external sources