European Courts and Foreigners’ Rights: A Comparative Study of Norms Diffusion

Abstract

This article analyzes the extent to which the European Court of Human Rights and the European Court of Justice have developed norms relevant to the status of non-(EU) nationals and the ways in which they have affected domestic law, focusing on the case of aliens’ rights in France, Germany and the Netherlands since 1974. The impact of European jurisprudence has been modest and varies across cases. Notwithstanding, a cross-national process-tracing study of the effect of two international jurisdictions serves to identify the requisites for the diffusion of international norms including the attitude towards international law of national judiciaries, the mobilization of legal aid groups, and the preexistence of compatible norms at the domestic level.