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

本研究项目探讨了欧洲法律一体化的动态通过检查外国法律判例是如何传入国内领域。本研究对欧洲法院（ECJ）和欧盟（EU）其他成员国引入英国法律体系的外国判例进行了单一国家分析。该项目探讨了外国法理学对英国法律体系的影响程度，以及司法行为者（法官、律师、政治家）在这一过程中有多大的影响。欧洲法律一体化有两个维度：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秩序的建立导致各国法院在欧洲法院的正式权威下，随着时间的推移做出越来越相似的决定。研究较少的是横向法律一体化，随着时间的推移，各国法院做出的判决越来越相似，因为各国法院非正式地相互作用、借鉴和模仿。本文研究了后一种动态，同时也询问了它是由垂直整合促进的，还是相反，随着时间的推移，鼓励了垂直整合。该分析包括1920年至2010年间英国高等法院在移民、银行和家庭法方面的所有案件。这项研究还将包括对英国议会两院文件的定性分析，对英国上议院议员和法律助理的采访，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。来自无数法院的法理学的影响，无论是国家的还是超国家的，一直是美国讨论的话题。这个项目为美国对话提供了一个更广阔的背景，通过考虑思想如何在国家机构内，在国家和超国家机构之间移动，并在一个国家的法律官员中传播，这些法律官员也认为自己处于与欧洲系统不同的法律体系中，他们是欧洲系统的一部分。在此项目过程中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.