In the Court We Trust

Rob van Gestel is Professor of Law at Law School, Universiteit van Tilburg, The Netherlands. He was visiting Professor at the Academy of Legal Theory of the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Brussels, Professor of methodology of legal research at Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, and Braudel Fellow of the European University Institute in Florence, Chairman of the Dutch Association of Legislation and member of the International Association of Legislation. He has recently published: Rob van Gestel, Hans Micklitz and Ed Rubin (eds.), Rethinking Legal Scholarship: A Transatlantic Dialogue (Cambridge, 2017), and articles in the European Law Journal, Common Market Law Review, European Public Law, Cambridge International Law Journal, Legal Studies. Jurgen de Poorter is Professor of Administrative Law at Universiteit van Tilburg, The Netherlands and deputy Judge in the District Court of The Hague. From 2005 until 2018 he was a special advisor to the Dutch Council of State, in particular to the Administrative Jurisdiction Division of the Council of State. He has recently published on methods of judicial lawmaking, judicial review of evidence based legislation and judicial dialogues in the European Union.

• 1. Why don't we talk?; 2. Dialogue as a concept; 3. Case law analysis; 4. Results from the interviews; 5. Trust and dialogue; 6. Conclusion and future scenarios.

'Is there really a 'dialogue' between national and supranational courts? Over the years, many judges and writers have asserted that 'dialogue' takes place, but the evidence provided is very limited, and the analysis of whether the responses of one court to the decisions of another really amount to 'dialogue' has been severely lacking. This book is a major step forward. It provides a serious analysis of what we mean by 'dialogue'. It then analyses how the relationships between the CJEU (Court of Justice of the European Union) and national Supreme (Administrative) Courts fit into this model of interaction. It looks at what happens internally within the various courts as well as at the interactions between them. The carefully nuanced picture of formal and informal processes is a really valuable contribution to how we should think about the relationships between supranational and national courts in general.' John Bell, University of Cambridge