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Autre Publication Scientifique Année : 2022

Suing for European Democracy?

Le procès au service de la démocratie ?

Résumé

From the 1990s, in Europe, an increasing number of groups - including minorities - have resorted to legal proceedings due to an inability to make themselves meaningfully heard, when they sought to defend their interests, within the democratic system. Certain scholars named these legal procedures “strategic litigation” (SL). For years, legal scholars dismissed this litigation, prompt to criticise it as an instrumentalisation of justice, especially when such litigation was used by socially marginalised groups. However, as this SL has become more abundant, transcending the field of minorities to be used in the environmental sphere in particular – with striking European victories –, it is evident that it is playing a central role in our democracies. Simultaneously, we are observing a loss of confidence in traditional institutions. Where voting in referenda or elections often reduces citizens’ agency to expressing a binary choice, and where participation and consultation mechanisms remain limited in their areas of application and effects, collective action in the area of justice seems to increase citizens’ agency and enable them to participate in the exercise of power. The SUEDEM project (SUing for European DEMocracy) aims to understand if and how SL contributes to democracy. It will do so through fulfilling three aims: 1) to gain a clearer understanding of the concept of SL with a democratic aim, through literature analysis and field studies, including undertaking litigation (though SL has already been examined in sector-based studies, no holistic study of the phenomenon exists); 2) to establish the legitimacy of SL and its actors, by demonstrating their central contribution to democracy; 3) to promote “democratic strategic litigation” (DSL) by offering instruments to be used by legislative assemblies (for example, a European directive proposal), assessors and financers (effectiveness indicators for DSL) and NGOs (a practical guide to DSL).
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Origine : Fichiers produits par l'(les) auteur(s)

Dates et versions

hal-04078417 , version 1 (26-04-2023)

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Paternité - Pas d'utilisation commerciale - Partage selon les Conditions Initiales

Identifiants

  • HAL Id : hal-04078417 , version 1

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Benjamin Moron-Puech, Julien Béal-Long, Jimmy Kolbe-André. Suing for European Democracy?. 2022. ⟨hal-04078417⟩
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