June 3, 2020

Erik Voeten (Georgetown University)

“Substance over Process: Why Right-wing Authoritarians and Nationalists Oppose Interventionist European Courts”

(with Mikael Rask Madsen (University of Copenhagen), Juan Mayoral (University of Copenhagen), Anton Strezhnev (New York University))

Watch the recorded webinar here. 

Published as:
MADSEN, M., MAYORAL, J., STREZHNEV, A., & VOETEN, E. (2021). Sovereignty, Substance, and Public Support for European Courts’ Human Rights Rulings. American Political Science Review, 1-20. doi:10.1017/S0003055421001143

Abstract

To what extent is the public backlash against European courts driven by substantive concerns over the outcomes of cases and/or procedural concerns over sovereignty? We conducted pre-registered survey experiments in Denmark, France, Poland, Spain, and the United Kingdom using three vignettes: an immigrant who faces extradition, a person fighting a fine for burning Qurans, and a home-owner contesting eviction. Each vignette varies whether a European court overrules a national court (procedural sovereignty treatment) and whether an applicant wins a case (outcome treatment). Case outcomes shape support for compliance and court authority much more than procedural sovereignty. This is even more so for respondents with nationalist and authoritarian leanings. That is: nationalists do not shift their support for compliance or court authority when the European court overturn a national court but they do, very strongly, when the immigrant wins a case. This runs counter to the idea that nationalist opposition to international institutions differs from other types of opposition because nationalists reject limitations on sovereignty in principle and not just in practice. These findings have implications for our understanding of the authoritarian and nationalist challenges to international institutions and the legitimacy of international institutions. Moreover, they imply that international courts cannot resurrect their popularity through deference alone. For example, rejecting the eviction of a home-owner substantially increases public support regardless of whether this involves overruling a national court.