ECJ Judges read the morning papers. Explaining the turnaround of European citizenship jurisprudence

Recent jurisprudence of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) marks a striking shift towards a more restrictive interpretation of EU citizens’ rights. The Court's turnaround is not only highly relevant for practical debates about ‘Social Europe’ or ‘welfare migration’, but also enlightening from a more general, theoretical viewpoint. Several recent studies on the ECJ have argued that the Court is largely constrained by member state governments’ threats of legislative override and non-compliance. We show that an additional mechanism is necessary to explain the Court's turnaround on citizenship. While the ECJ extended EU citizens’ rights even against strong opposition by member state governments, its recent shift reflects changes in the broader political context, i.e., the politicization of free movement in the European Union (EU). The article theorises Court responsiveness to politicization and demonstrates empirically, how the Court's jurisprudence corresponds with changing public debates about EU citizenship.

近期欧洲法院（ECJ）的司法判例标志着对欧盟公民权利更为严格解读的显著转变。法院的这一转向不仅对关于‘社会欧洲’或‘福利移民’的实践辩论具有重要影响，而且从更为广泛的理论视角来看，亦具有启发意义。数项近期关于欧洲法院的研究指出，法院在很大程度上受到成员国政府威胁立法否决和违约的制约。本研究表明，为了解释法院在公民权利问题上的转变，有必要引入额外的机制。尽管欧洲法院在成员国政府的强烈反对下仍扩展了欧盟公民的权利，但其最近的转变反映了更广泛的政治背景变化，即欧盟内部自由流动的政治化。本文从理论上探讨了法院对政治化的反应，并通过实证研究展示了法院的司法判例如何与关于欧盟公民身份的公众辩论变化相对应。