1st Edition

The End of Territoriality? The Impact of ECJ Rulings on British, German and French Social Policy

By Andreas J. Obermaier Copyright 2009

    Through analyzing the implementation of a series of European Court of Justice rulings in the key member states of Germany, France and the UK, The End of Territoriality brings the high impact issue of policy changes to the foreground. The time sequencing of such changes is traced and scrutinized through a detailed investigation by Obermaier, followed by a comprehensive illustration on the full impact the policy amendments have had on the welfare states. By drawing extensively on original sources and new material, this volume will be of key interest to those studying and working within social policy, welfare, political sociology, and European law.

    Contents: Introduction: de-territorialization versus justice contained; Theorizing implementation processes of ECJ rulings; Conceptualizing the ECJ's integration function; ECJ jurisprudence on patient mobility; Implementing the Kohll/Decker jurisprudence: the overall picture in EU member states; The case of France; The case of Germany; The case of the United Kingdom (England and Wales); Fine-tuning doctrines by the ECJ: judicial activism and self-restraint?; The European Commission: enforcement and alternative management strategies; Making sense of implementation; Conclusion: 5 lessons; Bibliography; Index.

    Biography

    Andreas Obermaier, Brussels, Belgium.

    'Andreas Obermaier's account of the ECJ’s fine-tuning in the famous Kohll and Decker social security cases reveals that these doctrines indeed changed gradually and took into account both scholarly and political concerns - a reassuring insight for political scientists in the field of European integration research.' Gerda Falkner, Institute for European Integration Research, Austrian Academy of Sciences, Austria 'The book's greatest strength, and its contribution to the literature, is the empirical evidence of implementation and reception into national law, administrative practice and policy of the principles elaborated by the Court of Justice of the European Union in the Kohll/Decker jurisprudence. The book sets out very clearly indeed the policy, administrative and legislative changes made in the three Member States - the product of careful sifting of disparate sources and construction of a clear narrative therefrom. For EU scholars, practitioners in Member States and others seeking to understand the implications of a particular legal and policy development at EU level, for the national levels within the European Union, and the interactions between national and EU-level institutions, there is gold in here.' European Law Review 'It is an important contribution to the literature, first in that it studies what the important drivers for implementation of CJEU rulings are, and second in that it looks at the actual impact at Member State level. Obermaier looks at exactly those impact factors that in the (legal) literature are often the presumed consequence of this particular string of CJEU case law for the national healthcare systems: de-territorialization, internal de-structuring and financial destabilization... this study adds a very relevant perspective for lawyers who are interested in the actual impact of European law on national healthcare systems. At the same time it is a contribution to social science studies in that it is a detailed and in-depth case st