Suing for Europe

Abstract

This article develops a conceptual framework linking processes of regional integration with transformations in litigation. The analysis fuses the work of American public law scholars and European integration experts to examine if, how, and why an American “adversarial legalism”-style is developing in the European Union (EU), why this is causally linked to processes of integration, and what this means for democracy in the EU. The article provides a systematic and comparative cross-sector analysis of EU policy to reveal both the change in rights available to citizens and how these affect legal claims and democracy.