Who's afraid of the ECJ?: Charting the UK's relationship with the European Court

The Government has promised to end the direct jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) after Brexit. However, the role of the court remains a live issue in negotiations.

This IfG Analysis charts the UK’s experience at the ECJ compared to the 14 other longest-standing members of the European Union (EU). It finds that the UK rarely ends up in the ECJ, and when it does it wins its cases more often than most EU member states.

The UK won around a quarter of all the cases against it in the last 14 years: the highest success rate of any country that joined the EU before 2004 and the third highest success rate of any country in the EU now.

This paper also sets out how often the UK is in fact taking orders from judges in Luxembourg, and what those judges tend to say.