Internal Market Seminar: The End of Negative Market Integration: 60 Years of Free Movement of Goods Litigation (1961-2020)

This year EU Internal Market's Seminar will focus on the topic of Jan Zglinski’s paper: "The End of Negative Market Integration: 60 Years of Free Movement of Goods Litigation (1961-2020)."

The free movement of goods is widely believed to be a prime example of the negative integration paradigm. Its defining characteristic is a strong judicial process, fuelled by – and fuelling – litigation, which eclipses the weak(er) political process. In this article, it is argued that this dominant narrative is no longer accurate.

Based on a new dataset of all Article 34 TFEU cases decided by the CJEU between 1961 and 2020, it will be shown that goods litigation has been disappearing from the Court’s docket since the mid-1980s.

The reasons for this, it will be argued, lie in changing incentive structures for both litigants and national courts, which have reduced the appeal of bringing goods cases, as well as a rise in EU legislation. The consequence is a demise of negative and a turn towards positive integration.

Speaker

• Jan Zglinski - Assistant Professor of Law (London School of Economics)

Commentator

• Hanna Eklund - Assistant Professor of Constitutional Law (University of Copenhagen)

Moderator

• Miguel Poiares Maduro - VdA Chair in Digital Governance (Católica Global School of Law)