I domstolens fälla? Den Liberala Intergovernmentalismen från Utstationeringsdirektivet till Lavaldomen

Abstract

This thesis aim to advance the Liberal Integrovernmentalism (LIG) developed by Andrew Moravcsik in order to order to explain how the European Court of Justice (ECJ) can make de facto EU policies diverge from what was originally intended by the Member States. More specifically it describes how the Posting of Workers Directive, Directive 96/71/EC, originally was created to shield certain Member States and their respective systems of regulating the labour market from pressure arising from the posting of workers form low-wage countries inside the EU. However, through a series of cases in the ECJ the de facto policy of the directive has changed and it is now in itself a potential threat against these systems. The Member States now find themselves caught in a “Joint-Decision Trap”, unable to rectify the situation even though their original agreement has been turned on its head. The thesis aim to show how Joint-Decision Trap such as the one underlying the discrepancy between the intended policy of the directive and the de facto policy of the directive post the ECJ case-law surrounding it can be used to explain similar anomalies in the LIG theoretical framework.