Book Announcement: Franciszek Strzyczkowski et al., eds., European Judicial Systems as a Challenge for Democracy (Intersentia 2015)

Network member Franciszek Strzyczkowski (University of Łódź), together with Elzbieta Kuzelewska, Dariusz Kloza, and Izabela Krasnicka, has just edited a new volume published by Intersentia, entitled European Judicial Systems as a Challenge for Democracy.  It forms part of the "European Integration and Democracy" series.  An extract from the Preface is below, and more details can be found here.

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The European judiciary -- i.e., the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) and national courts interpreting and applying European law sensu largo -- have shaped [the process of European integration] actively, alongside the Founding Fathers, European nations, European states and their citizens. The involvement of the judiciary raises its own wide range of questions concerning the very nature of democracy. Much ink has already been spilled over issues such as democratic legitimacy, subsidiarity and accountability, the rule of law or judicial activism.

[In this volume,] seventeen scholars from across Europe . . . share their views on the European judiciary as a challenge for democracy. The various contributions to the present volume are split into two parts. The first provides ten chapters on the judicial systems of the European Union (EU), discussing, inter alia, recognition of democratic principles in the case law of the CJEU, contribution thereof to the democratisation of the Union and reception of EU law in the Member States. The second part discusses the judicial means [for the protection of] human rights in Europe, consisting of three chapters devoted to the promise of advisory opinions of the ECtHR as well as to democratic standards for voting and for fair trial[s].