A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal
Of Values and Legitimacy – Discourse Analytical Insights on the Copyright Case Law of the Court of Justice of the European Union
Authors: Harri Kalimo, Trisha Meyer, Tuomas Mylly
Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell
Publication year: 2018
Journal: Modern Law Review
Journal name in source: Modern Law Review
Volume: 81
Issue: 2
First page : 282
Last page: 307
Number of pages: 26
ISSN: 0026-7961
eISSN: 1468-2230
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-2230.12329(external)
Abstract
The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) increasingly faces societal value-conflicts in EU law disputes. For example, in EU copyright law, in the digital age, diverse fundamental values, as well as cultural and societal developments, are at stake. This article discusses the role of the CJEU in the European value discourse, using copyright law as a case study. The methodological approach used, critical discourse analysis, is seldom applied in jurisprudentialstudies, but is well suited for teasing out value-related aspects of case law. Exploratory research of seminal copyright cases suggests that the CJEU’s discourse of the various values seems unnec-essarily one-sided and shallow. A lack of discursiveness in the jurisprudence would diminish the legitimacy of the Court’s decisions, and would not offer adequate guidance to national courts or private decision-makers, to whom the Court at the same time may be leaving more of thetask of value reconciliation.
The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) increasingly faces societal value-conflicts in EU law disputes. For example, in EU copyright law, in the digital age, diverse fundamental values, as well as cultural and societal developments, are at stake. This article discusses the role of the CJEU in the European value discourse, using copyright law as a case study. The methodological approach used, critical discourse analysis, is seldom applied in jurisprudentialstudies, but is well suited for teasing out value-related aspects of case law. Exploratory research of seminal copyright cases suggests that the CJEU’s discourse of the various values seems unnec-essarily one-sided and shallow. A lack of discursiveness in the jurisprudence would diminish the legitimacy of the Court’s decisions, and would not offer adequate guidance to national courts or private decision-makers, to whom the Court at the same time may be leaving more of thetask of value reconciliation.