The content of EU directives and their judicial enforcement through member state courts in the EU fifteen

Abstract

This project develops insights into the nature of the mechanism of 'decentralized enforcement'; a process that links EU rule-making to judicial enforcement of EU laws through national courts. Decentralized enforcement is a compliance tool that was developed by the European Commission and the European Court of Justice (ECJ) to detect member States' non-compliance with EU legal obligations. This project questions whether decentralized enforcement really works according to the assumed logic proposed in the literature. Addressing questions about the functioning of the mechanism is important, because decentralized enforcement is an important constituent part of theories that antcipate how judicial interventions as a form of governance affect the regulatory systems of the member states. Furthermore, generating information on decentralized enforcement adds to debates about the extent to which the regulatory functioning of the EU fuels a 'democratic deficit'.