Interest Group Politics in the Legal Arena
The second module under the direction of Prof. Dr. Britta Rehder analyses how and to what extent organized interests make use of the legal arena to pursue their preferences. Legal action can be an attractive strategy for interest groups to counteract or to limit the sope of unpopular legislation. The literature on “Eurolegalism” has argued that court-related types of interest group politics have gained influence not only in the US, but also in Europe. We want to contribute to this literature by providing empirical evidence.
This module investigate if and to what extent legislation is called into question by interest groups via means of legal action, and if court involvement has increased over time. We analyze, if time, policy fields and party-political majorities in the parliamentary arena make a difference. Moreover, we want to find out, how interest groups mobilise legal resources and which institutional, structural or strategic aspects have an impact on their decision to address the courts. To answer these questions, we analyze court decisions related to the legislative acts of the German Bundestag. Moreover we investigate the legal strategies of 100 big interest groups by conducting interviews, evaluating their web pages and other documents.
Our study provides evidence about the questions:
- ...to what extent the role of legal action as an interest groups strategy has increased over the past twenty years
- ...if policy areas, time aspects or party-political majorities in the parliamentary arena make a difference
- ...to what extent parliamentary legislation is overruled or limited in scope
- ...which factors help to explain the decision of interest groups to address the courts.
| Britta Rehder | GC 04/145 | 32-22976 |
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Head of Module |
| Katharina van Elten | GC 04/142 | 32-22976 |
|
Research Associate |
