‘Judicial Cooperation in Civil Matters’: The Politics of Civil Justice Under the EU’s Area of Freedom, Security and Justice

‘Judicial cooperation in civil matters’ is an understudied dimension of the AFSJ. Despite its apparently apolitical and technocratic nature, the civil justice policy field impinges upon core dimensions of national sovereignty. The article explores developments in this field from an historically informed political perspective. Rather than focusing on legislative details or legal doctrine, the paper places civil justice into perspective by linking it to overarching debates about European integration. The article begins by delineating the core components of ‘judicial cooperation in civil matters’ – procedural law, private international law (conflict of laws), and the administration of justice – then demonstrates that similar tools have been used to govern large, pluralistic territories in Europe since the Roman Empire. Next, the paper explores each component, and explains why it matters that the EU has moved into these technical legal fields. For example, developments pertaining to procedural law and to the administration of justice bear on discussions about judicialization and ‘Eurolegalism’. Efforts to promote access to justice and create special procedures for the pursuit of EU claims can shape norm-development (via litigation in national courts), while initiatives to train members of the national legal staff aim to promote European legal culture, and thus will supplement the elites’ professional attachment to their national legal cultures and traditions. Moreover, measures pertaining to private international law mark a significant step towards legal federalism, insofar as they weaken key tools for vindicating national legal interests, and transform issues of ‘international’ law into issues of ‘domestic’ European law.