Does the European Court of Justice Take Democracy Seriously? Some Thoughts about the Macro-financial Assistance Case

Publishers Abstract:
Starting from an analysis of the ECJ’s ruling in the MFA case, the paper explores whether the EU judiciary pays sufficient attention to the principle of democracy and, if so, which understanding of democracy it seeks to promote.
It comes to the conclusion that the case law reveals a tendency to favour the powers of non-majoritarian bodies. Insofar, it is not so much representative democracy that the Court of Justice strives to protect but rather a kind of democracy which tends to give precedence to the government for the people over the government by the people.