Exploring Judicial Interpretation: Comparative Law Methodology and the Hybridisation Paradigm

Abstract

The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) interprets directives and regulations, forming what will be called a hybrid space where national legal systems and supranational elements converge, particularly when asserting the autonomy of a notion. Comparative law has supported legal norm harmonisation but has also revealed the diversity within legal systems, including the EU’s, through the study of legal formants. The goal of this contribution is to show how a comparative approach, incorporating the concept of hybridity from other disciplines, can aid in analysing autonomous interpretation and the influence of hybridisation on legal concepts and terminology.