Of Garbage Cans and Rulings: Judgments of the European Court of Justice in the EU Legislative Process

• Published in: West European politics Vol. 33; no. 4; pp. 753 - 769
• Main Author: Nowak, Tobias
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Routledge 01.07.2010; Taylor & Francis Ltd
• Subjects: Court decisions; Courts; Decision Making; EU directives; Europe; European Court of Justice; European Union; European Union institutions; Governance; International Court; International courts; International organizations; Jurisdiction; Justice; Legislative Process; Modelling; Political influences; Political roles; Politics; Wastes
• ISSN: 0140-2382; 1743-9655
• DOI: 10.1080/01402381003794605

This article addresses the problem of how to explain the influence that rulings of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) have on the political decision-making of the EU. It will be argued that a framework developed by Kingdon which follows the garbage can model of Cohen, March and Olson is a good approach to conceptualising this influence. This framework explains political processes in terms of problems, solutions, participants and choice opportunities. In order to illustrate the argument, two famous rulings, Dassonville and Cassis de Dijon, are examined in detail. Both rulings dealt with the same subject but had different impacts on political decision-making. The difference in influence depended on the conditions of the political arena at the time the rulings were given and not on their legal contents.