The ‘National Decisions’ database (Dec.Nat): Introducing a database on national courts’ interactions with European Law
| Published date | 01 June 2016 |
| DOI | 10.1177/1465116515613453 |
| Author | Denise Carolin Hübner |
| Date | 01 June 2016 |
| Subject Matter | Forum |
European Union Politics
2016, Vol. 17(2) 324–339
!The Author(s) 2015
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DOI: 10.1177/1465116515613453
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Forum
The ‘National Decisions’
database (Dec.Nat):
Introducing a database
on national courts’
interactions with
European Law
Denise Carolin Hu
¨bner
Department of Political Science, University of Dublin, Ireland
Abstract
This article makes a contribution to the empirical study of the European legal order, by
introducing the ‘National Decisions’ database maintained by the Association of Councils
of States and Supreme Administrative Jurisdictions of the European Union. Containing
large-scale information on 27,100 national decisions relating to European law, including
cases that do not involve preliminary references, the database allows researchers to get
beyond the focus on decisions of the ECJ to get a better understanding of the larger
universe of cases where national courts apply European law. This article illustrates how
we can use the database to expand on existing scholarship. It focuses on the study of
the judicial enforcement of European law through national courts, in particular.
Keywords
Data collection, decentralized enforcement, European law, national courts
Introduction
The empirical study of the preliminary reference procedure (Article 267 TFEU),
which allows national courts to refer questions on the application and interpret-
ation of EU law to the European Court of Justice (ECJ), is central to the study of
European politics and law (Broberg and Fenger, 2013; Carrubba et al., 2008, 2012;
Stone Sweet and Brunell, 1998, 2012). This article makes a contribution to the
Corresponding author:
Denise Carolin Hu¨bner, Department of Political Science, Denise Carolin Hu¨bner, University of Dublin, Trinity
College, 2-3 College Green, Dublin 2, Ireland.
Email: huebnerd@tcd.ie
empirical study of the wider operation of the European legal order, by introducing
a large-scale database of national court decisions relating to European law.
This database allows researchers to move beyond the focus on decisions of the
ECJ, or the use of Article 267 TFEU references, to improve our understanding of
the enforcement of European law through national courts. Despite the knowledge
that national courts are crucial to ensuring member states’ compliance with
European legal obligations (Alter, 2000; Chalmers, 2000; Conant, 2002; Phelan,
2015; Tallberg, 2002, 2003; Weiler, 1991, 1994), we currently have very limited
information about the larger universe of instances in which they perform this
function. I argue that we are in need of more information about these observations
because the sources of data commonly used in the literature cover only a distinct
sample of all judicial enforcement of European law.
This article describes the types of data sources used in leading studies of
European legal integration and explains why observations on national court deci-
sions are important to our understanding of the process. Furthermore, it intro-
duces the ‘National Decisions’ database (‘Dec.Nat’) maintained by the Association
of Councils of States and Supreme Administrative Jurisdictions of the European
Union (ACA), which provides extensive detail on national court decisions with an
EU law dimension. The article argues that despite its limitations, this publically
available database has many advantages that can add to the study of the decen-
tralized enforcement of European law.
Data on the politics of European Law and National courts
Broadly speaking, leading contributions to the political science of European legal
integration tend to draw on three sources of data. The first one is ‘landmark’ or
‘constitutional’ decisions of European and national courts that have built the
European legal system from the signing of the Treaty of Rome. These judicial
decisions were frequently made under the preliminary reference procedure, which
allows national courts to refer questions on the application of interpretation of EU
law to the ECJ, which in turn hands down ‘preliminary rulings’, giving guidance on
legal questions. Leading scholars such as Alter (2003), Burley and Mattli (1993),
Stone Sweet (2004) or Weiler (1991) have used decisions of the ECJ on constitu-
tional principles (e.g. Internationale Handelsgesellschaft) or on substantive eco-
nomic obligations (e.g. Cassis de Dijon) to explain the development of the
European legal order. These studies find that national courts, especially those of
lower instances, have played a central role in legal integration, since they supplied
the ECJ with preliminary references and enforced its judgements within the domes-
tic legal system.
The second source of data often used is national and European court decisions
in particular issue-areas. For example, Cichowski (2007) explores how the use of
the preliminary procedure, has led to the institutionalization of gender equality and
environmental rights in the EU 15 between 1970 and 2003. Conant (2002), in turn,
analyses how national courts and stakeholders engage with the ECJ’s jurisprudence
Hu
¨bner 325
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