Perspectives on Europeanization of National Judiciaries: Old and New Questions

Abstract

The aim of this article is to bring together different legal, political science and sociological perspectives addressing the problem of Europeanization of national judiciaries. In that sense, this article provides an overview of several old aspects regarding the way and extent national courts/judges adapted to their role of European judges. Next to that, it is looked into the manner of and reasons behind judges’ involvement in the process of EU legal integration, whereby a new research agenda is offered. For that purpose, new questions are raised and different empirical aspects are discussed concerning, for instance, courts compliance with EU law, the relevance of national judges’ individual profiles (knowledge, attitudes and values) but also the role of institutions (networks) and legal systems in the process of Europeanization of judges.