Precedent and the Court of Justice: A Jurisprudence of Doubt?

This chapter examines the doctrine of stare decisis in relation to the first and the third constituency. It looks at the methodology of the European Court of Justice in distinguishing precedent, express and implicit overruling, and the quasi-normative effect of precedent. The picture that emerges is that of a judicial behavior which is close in result, albeit not in methodology, to that of Ango-Saxon supreme courts which adhere to the doctrine of stare decisis.