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Publishers Abstract:
The study of the cooperation of national courts with the European Court of Justice (ECJ) in the application of European Community law usually focuses on the use by national courts of the preliminary reference mechanism. This article reviews evidence from Spain based on a dataset of Spanish cases that either apply or cite EC law. The data is imperfect in many senses. But still, this data may allow for disentangling different theories of the precedential practices of national courts towards the ECJ. This article concludes that the actual patterns of citations practices and compliance are better explained by factors such as the experience of national judges with EC law, the degree of codification of a field of law, the vagueness of EC legislation, and the signals sent by other courts, rather than the position of governments and the policies embodied in EC legislation, the political climate regarding European integration, economic circumstances or the position of domestic or foreign courts towards EC law.
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