Class struggle in the shadow of Luxembourg. The domestic impact of the European Court of Justice’s case law on the regulation of working conditions

Abstract:

In recent years, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) has extended the scope of the four fundamental freedoms to politically and economically highly sensitive areas such as the right to strike and the regulation of working conditions of posted workers. This article analyses the domestic impact of two of the most controversial judgments – Laval (C-341/05) and Rüffert (C-346/06) – in Denmark, Sweden and Germany. In order to explain the different outcomes of the national adaptation processes, the article connects the literature on judicial Europeanization with political economy perspectives on the role of employers in economic and social regulation. The findings show that the differences between the cases can be traced back to different preferences of employers towards wage competition. The reason for this is that the ECJ's case law has shifted the balance of power between labour and capital in the domestic arenas in favour of business.