9412531 STONE This project seeks to describe and explain the dynamics and mechanics of European legal integration, the process by which the European Community (EC) is constructing a legitimized and effective supranational constitution. This kind of legal integration provides a model for the development of democratic constitutionalism in regimes such as post-colonial states and newly unified territories. A hallmark of such regimes is legal pluralism, which poses serious problems related to the integration of laws across legal cultures, the enforcement of cross-cultural legal codes, and the legitimation of new legal institutions. This research will provide the empirical basis for understanding these processes in the European Community and for formulating explanatory theoretical models. The project focuses on litigation because it is through private claims that the critical doctrines will evolve and be enforced. There is already evidence that the doctrines of supremacy and direct effect, enunciated by the European Court of Justice, are being applied by the national courts in litigation. It is this process, often dominated by private actors such as interest groups rather than by public authorities, that will bring about legal integration across the members of the European Union. Enforcement of rulings, in the event of non-compliance, does rely on public authorities. Therefore, the key actors include private litigants, national judges, and governmental officials. Data will be collected first from the national court decisions on EC law in which the doctrines of constitutionalism and direct effect are at issue, and from scholarly commentaries pertaining to them. The PI will then interview judges and other legal actors involved in important litigation at each of the national courts. Finally, the PI will gather data on the policy impact of legal integration and constitutionalism in three crucial areas: environmental policy, free movement of goods, and gend er equality. The data collection will include tracing litigation involving claims against public authorities for violating EC norms in these three policy areas, and interviewing the participating governmental officials, judges and interest group litigants. ***
