Doctoral Dissertation Research: Transnational Judicial Dialogue and Evolving Jurisprudence in British National Courts

本研究项目通过研究外国法律的判例如何传播到国内领域，探讨欧洲法律的一体化的动态。本研究对欧洲法院和欧盟其他成员国的外国判例输入英国法律的体系进行了一个国家的分析。该项目探讨了外国法学在多大程度上影响了英国的法律的制度，以及司法行为者（法官、律师、政治家）在这一过程中有多大影响。欧洲法律的一体化有两个维度：纵向和横向。大多数学术研究都集中在纵向法律的整合上，这是一个自上而下的过程，在这个过程中，法院和法律的等级法律的秩序的建立导致国家法院在欧洲法院的正式权力下做出越来越相似的决定。对横向法律的一体化研究较少，即国家法院随着时间的推移做出越来越相似的判决，因为国家法院非正式地相互影响、借鉴和模仿。本文调查了后者的动态，同时也问它是否已经培育了纵向一体化，或者相反，随着时间的推移，鼓励纵向一体化。分析包括所有英国高等法院的案件在移民，银行和家庭法从1920年至2010年。这项研究还将包括对英国议会两院文件的定性分析，对英国上议院法官和法律助理的采访，对欧洲法院法官的采访，以及对英国和欧盟司法档案的访问。来自国家和超国家的无数法院的判例的影响一直是美国讨论的话题。 这个项目提供了一个更广泛的背景下，美国的对话，考虑如何在一个国家机构，国家和超国家机构之间移动的想法，并超出了国家的边界，在一个国家的法律的官员谁也认为自己是在一个法律的系统不同于欧洲系统，他们是一部分。该项目期间收集的数据将提供给学者。

This research project explores the dynamics of European legal integration by examining how foreign legal jurisprudence is transmitted into the domestic realm. This study performs a single country analysis of the importation of foreign jurisprudence from the European Court of Justice (ECJ) and from other member states of the European Union (EU) into the British legal system. The project explores to what degree foreign jurisprudence has influenced the British legal system and how much influence judicial actors (judges, lawyers, politicians) have in this process. European legal integration has two dimensions: vertical and horizontal. Most scholarship has focused on vertical legal integration, a top-down process where the establishment of a hierarchical legal order of courts and laws causes national courts to make increasingly similar decisions over time as they come under the formal authority of the ECJ. Less studied is horizontal legal integration, where national courts make increasingly similar decisions over time because national courts interact, borrow, and imitate each other informally. This dissertation investigates the latter dynamic, while also asking whether it has been fostered by vertical integration or, conversely, has encouraged vertical integration over time.The analysis includes all British high court cases in immigration, banking, and family law from 1920-2010. The study will also include qualitative analysis of British parliamentary documents from both chambers, interviews with British Law Lords and law clerks, interviews with judges at the ECJ, and visits to British and EU judicial archives. The influence of jurisprudence from myriad courts, both national and supranational, has been topic of discussion in the United States. This project provides a broader context for the American conversation by considering how ideas move within a national institution, between national and supranational institutions, and spread beyond the boundaries of the state in a country with legal officials who also see themselves as within a legal system distinct from the European system of which they are a part. The data collected during the course of this project will be made available to scholars.