The last two decades have witnessed an exponential growth in debates on the use of foreign law by courts. Different labels have been attached to the same phenomenon: judges drawing inspiration from outside of their national legal systems for solving purely domestic disputes. By doing so, the judges are said to engage in cross-border judicial dialogues. They are creating a larger, transnational community of judges.
This book puts similar claims to test in relation to highest national jurisdictions (supreme and constitutional courts) in Europe today. How often and why do judges choose to...

At the onset of the 2004, European Union enlargement witnessed a number of predictions that were being made about the approaches, capacity, and ability of Central European judges who were soon to join the EU. Optimistic voices, foreshadowing the deep transformative power that Europe was bound to exercise with respect to the judicial mentality and practice in the new Member States, were intertwined with gloomy pictures of post-Communist limited formalism and mechanical jurisprudence that could not be reformed (which were likely to undermine the very foundations of the mutual trust and...

Regulation 261/2004 on air passengers' rights has been among the most high profile pieces of EU secondary legislation of the past years, generating controversial judgments of the Court of Justice of the European Union, from ex parte IATA to Sturgeon. The Regulation has led to equally challenging decisions across the EU's Member States, with domestic courts holding that a Regulation could not be relied upon by an individual claimant or even threatening outright to refuse an application of its provisions. The economic stakes are significant for passengers and airlines alike, and, despite the...