The political side of EU annulment litigation

Abstract

While actions for annulment are technical legal instruments, their use is more often than not motivated by political considerations. Annulments are thus a crucial part of the struggle over money, policy, competences, and votes within the European system of multilevel governance. Future research should therefore compare the role and use of annulment actions with the role and use of preliminary references and with infringement procedures. Only by including annulment actions systematically when analyzing judicial politics can a more appropriate understanding of the transformative role of legal conflict in the EU be produced. As shown in this book, such a research strategy is able to provide a more nuanced and context specific understanding of the power and influence of the Court of Justice.