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by Karen Alter (Author)
The most effective international legal system in the world exists in Europe. It works much like a domestic system, where violations of the law are brought to court, legal decisions are respected, and the autonomous influence of law and legal rulings extends into the political process itself. The European legal system was not always so effective at influencing state behavior and compelling compliance. Indeed the European Community's original legal system was intentionally designed to have very limited monitoring and enforcement capabilities. The European Court of Justice transformed the original system through bold and controversial legal decisions declaring the direct effect and supremacy of European law over national law.
This book starts where traditional legal accounts leave off. Karen Alter explains why national courts took on a role enforcing European law against their governments, and why national governments accepted an institutional change that greatly compromised national sovereignty. She then shows how harnessing national courts to funnel private litigant challenges through to the ECJ and enforce European law supremacy contributed fundamentally to the emergence of an international rule of law in Europe, where national governments are held accountable to their European legal obligations, and where states actually avoid policies that might conflict with European law.Author Biography
Karen J. Alter is Associate Professor of Political Science at Northwestern University, where she specializes in the international politics of international organizations and international law. Alter is author of Establishing the Supremacy of European Law: The Making of an International Rule of Law in Europe (Oxford University Press, 2001), and numerous articles and book chapters on the European Union's legal system. Alter's current research investigates how international politics is changed when international courts are created. Her most recent publications include "Resolving or Exacerbating Disputes? The WTO's New Dispute Resolution System." (International Affairs, 2003) and "Do International Courts Enhance Compliance with International Law? ( Review of Asian and Pacific Studies, 2003). Alter was a German Marshall Fund research fellow, and a visiting scholar at the European Union Center, Harvard University, and a Emile Noel Fellow at Harvard Law School in 2000-2001. She will be a Howard Foundation Fellow and a visiting scholar at the American Bar Foundation in 2004. Alter is on the editorial board of European Union Politics, and the executive committee of the European Union Studies Association (EUSA).
