The Growing but Uneven Role of European Courts in (Im)migration Governance: A Comparative Perspective

Building on four national case-studies (France, Greece, Italy and Poland) presenting a high variability in terms of (a) structure of the legal system and traditional role of the courts in it, and (b) numbers and types of immigration, and on the European Court of Justice, the article discusses the courts' growing role in migration law-making and policy-making arenas. The findings of this analysis inform how judicial empowerment in migration alters more general theories on the rule of law, the constitutional state, democratisation and the principal agent dynamic. Studying courts' jurisprudence in such a domain, therefore, is useful for a better understanding of the migration governance system, on the one hand, and on the endurance of the rule of law of contemporary democracies, on the other hand.