More Power, Less Legitimacy? How the Judicialization of Politics has Contributed to a Decreased Legitimacy of that Judiciary. A Case Study of the Netherlands

EU law is becoming a major constraint on national policymaking, increasing the power of the judiciary, and hence reducing that of legislative/executive powers. Due to EU-level political choices giving legal rights to citizens and organizations and meant to increase the EU’s legitimacy. The opposite could be the result, at least in some member-states, like the Netherlands. This EU-member state has historically legal and political institutions and culture most distant from these trends, the Netherlands: low litigation rates, consensual informalism, constitutional ban on judicial review. Here, EU-possibilities have contributed to a sharp rise in litigation. But, paradoxically, the increased involvement of the judiciary in policymaking has reduced its legitimacy among citizens, notwithstanding that the very latter have caused this judicialization by their increasing litigiousness.