The role of the European court of justice in the process of european integration: A neofunctionalist analysis

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Tezin Türü: Yüksek Lisans

Tezin Yürütüldüğü Kurum: Marmara Üniversitesi, Avrupa Araştırmaları Enstitüsü, Avrupa Birliği Siyaseti ve Uluslararası İlişkiler Anabilim Dalı (İngilizce), Türkiye

Tezin Onay Tarihi: 2020

Tezin Dili: İngilizce

Öğrenci: YU-CHOU LIN

Danışman: Armağan Emre Çakır

Özet:

This thesis evaluates the role of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) in the process of European integration under Neofunctionalism. The main argument of the thesis is that the ECJ, as an autonomous political actor, has successfully influenced the Union's policies, changed the political elites' preferences, and made substantial contributions to creating legal principles to foster and maintain the momentum of European integration under the Neofunctional logic, especially the notion of spillover. Chapter 1 introduces various narratives of the role of the ECJ and the notion of spillover under Neofunctionalism. Neofunctionalism is taken as the primary theoretical framework to analyze the role of ECJ during European integration in this thesis. Chapter 2 offers an overview of the ECJ and assesses the role of the ECJ under a Neofunctionalist analysis. Chapter 3 provides two legal principles elucidated by the ECJ within the integration process: 'the mutual recognition principle' and 'the right to be forgotten.' These principles corroborate that the ECJ produces spillovers to influence European integration. The thesis concludes that the role of the ECJ nicely dovetails with the concept of spillover under Neofunctionalism and that the ECJ produces spillover effects, which have successfully influenced the European Union's policies.