Judicial Application of European Union Law in post-Communist Countries The Cases of Estonia and Latvia

This book discusses how the plurality of legal norms operating in the European Union can be balanced to produce a functioning, sustainable and legitimate legal system. Presenting a conceptual framework for assessing and comparing transformations of national judicial systems in the context of EU membership, the book contributes to the EU legal theoretical debate on the relationship between 'authority' and 'coherence'. The author develops an original analytical framework of coherence to assess the application of EU law by national courts and uses interdisciplinary scientific methods and research design that combine legal doctrinal and social science methodology to the study of 'classical' legal questions. Providing an extensive database of 2004-2009 national judgments of national courts in Latvia and Estonia, the book offers an extensive comparative review of the jurisprudence of constitutional and supreme courts, as well as providing insight into the jurisprudence of ordinary national courts. It will appeal to legal scholars and political scientists studying courts and jurisprudence.

Preface and Acknowledgements; Introduction National Adjudication and the Coherence of the EU Legal System; Part I The Three-Dimensional Coherence Approach; Chapter 1 Conceptual Framework; Part II Intra-System Coherence: Constitutional Structures and Adjudication of EU Law by the Highest National Courts; Chapter 2 Substantive Coherence: Constitutional Structures and Principles; Chapter 3 Institutional Coherence: Interests and Interactions; Chapter 4 Argumentative Coherence: Justifications, Values and Legal Culture; Part III Adjudication of EU Law by the National Ordinary Courts; Chapter 5 Comparative Overview of National Case Law; Chapter 6 Jurisprudence of Estonian Courts; Chapter 7 Jurisprudence of Latvian Courts; Part IV Synthesis and Conclusion; Chapter 8 Domestic Courts and the Application of EU Law: Sources and Methods of Coherence;

Dr Tatjana Evas is a Research Fellow at the Jean Monnet Centre for European Studies (CEuS), University of Bremen. From 2000-2002, she was Public Interest Law Initiative Fellow at the Columbia Law School, USA.