Judicial politics in the European Union: Its impact on national opportunity structures for gender equality

The paper investigates the proposition that the impact of European judicial politics on national modes of governance in the field of gender equality is influenced by domestic mobilisation. Domestic mobilisation refers to activities in EU member-states aimed at ensuring that public and private actors at the national and local level enforce European laws and standards, or to efforts to counteract just such activities. In order to specify the conditions under which domestic mobilisation impacts judicial politics, this study systematically evaluates a set of variables designed to indicate the degree of openness of the national political and judicial systems and, hence, the likelihood of mobilisation in three member states. The analysis assesses the extent to which these factors constitute either favourable stimuli and incentives or conflicting structures and adverse forces for the expansion of judicial politics regarding gender equality within the European Community. The paper concludes that it is necessary to rethink the concepts governing the interaction between law and politics in the complex context of this emerging arena of European public policy.