Judicial Governance in der europäischen Rechtsgemeinschaft: Integration durch Recht jenseits des Staates

Whereas the transformations of the state in the context of Europeanisation and globalisation are broadly discussed, the transformations of the law under these conditions have so far been neglected. This dissertation employs concepts of the political-scientific governance discourse, reinterprets them from a social-theoretical point of view, and applies them to legal developments. The ‘judicial governance’ concept coined in this thesis thus helps to illuminate connections and tensions between national polities, a Europeanised law and the globalised economy, which together shape the societal constitution – not least before courts. The dissertation analyses the constitutive role of the law for the emerging European society (and, prospectively, a world society) which rests not on states but on citizens, from systems-theoretical, discourse-theoretical, structural-functionalist and political-economic perspectives. What results is a multifaceted picture of integration through law beyond the state. The case-law of the European Court of Justice, which is at the core of the European community of law and the European economic constitution, thus appears in a new light.