Using the historical archives of the EU to study CJEU case law

Abstract

This Special Section is one of the fruits of a research project designed to reflect on the potential offered to legal scholars by the archives of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU). A project led by the editors of the Special Section has analysed a selection of case dossiers with the aim of exploring how and why the archives of the Court of Justice are worthy of the attention of a wide range of scholars of European law, as well as scholars from different disciplines, including legal historians and sociologists. Cases were selected from a variety of areas in which key developments took place in the first 30 years of the Court’s case law: free movement of workers; free movement of goods; gender equality; access to justice; external relations; and competition law. The aim is, first, to illustrate the potential of the archives of the Court of Justice as an object of study and the opportunities and challenges the dossiers de procédure present, and second, to identify and initiate a reflection on the ways in which the archives may enhance, or even redirect, CJEU-focused scholarship.