Cases such as the Maastricht ruling by the German Federal Constitutional Court or the 'Crotty; decision by the Irish Supreme Court have gone down in the history of European integration as outstanding examples of intervention by judicial actors in important political processes. In this book, Dr. Castillo Ortiz makes for the first time a comprehensive analysis of all such rulings by national higher courts on European Union treaties issued during their processes of ratification.

Using an interdisciplinary Law and Politics approach and a sophisticated methodological strategy, the book describes the political dynamics underlying some of the most relevant judicial episodes in the process of European Integration during the last decades: litigation strategies by Europhile and Eurosceptic actors, relations between the judiciary and the other branches of government, and clashes of power between national courts and the European Court of Justice of the European Union. By offering empirical evidence and by relying on scientific rigor, the book seeks to provide both experts and the general public an accessible account of one of the most salient but least studied aspects of current European law and politics.

• Cover 2
• Title 6
• Copyright 7
• Dedication 8
• Contents 9
• List of Figures 10
• List of Tables 11
• Acknowledgements 12
• 1 National Higher Courts and Processes of Ratification of European Union Treaties 13
• 2 Constructing a Model of Judicial Behavior: Theoretical Framework 32
• 3 EU Primary Law Before the Guardians of the Constitution: Courts’ Decisions on the Merits 60
• 4 Kompetenz-Kompetenz—The Doctrine of the Last Say: The Interpretative Decisions of Courts 78
• 5 The Legal Dimension: Assessing Judicial Behaviour from the Viewpoint of Legal Rules 110
• 6 The Political Dimension: A Pro-ratification Context 138
• 7 The Judicial Dimension: Institutional Design and Decisional Dynamics 170