On the strategic use of litigation in corporate lobbying

• Department of Law

This event features a discussion with EUI Visiting PhD Sofie Fleerackers (University of Amsterdam/KU Leuven).

The EU institutional framework offers a multi-venue advocacy landscape for those in pursuit of political influence. Some interest groups even strategise and combine multiple venues – as ‘multi-venue players’ – to optimise their chances at success. While that may be, the interplay between (strategic) litigation and political lobbying within this advocacy toolkit has received little scholarly attention to date – a gap most notable from the perspective of corporate interests and their (Euro-)lawyers. 

This presentation aims to unpack how litigation may be used as – or embedded in – political lobbying by industry actors, in doing so offering an instrumental understanding of litigation beyond its value as a mere ex-post last resort tool. The talk will be based on empirical results from two case studies tracing strategies in the EU’s Emissions Trading System and IP policy on Supplementary Protection Certificates. Both regulatory instruments and selected industries offer illustrative insights given their salience over the past two decades, and a high degree of industry lobbying and litigation reaching the CJEU. 

 Building on this, the discussion will invite participants to further engage on procedural/practical elements of (multi-venue) corporate mobilisation in these policy fields, and beyond, taking an actor-perspective, and to reflect more broadly on the implications of such practices for the interplay between law and politics, and ultimately, the rule of law in the EU.