CELS/USC Virtual Antitrust Law Workshop Series: 'Measuring Incremental Change in EU Competition Law'

Speaker: Eun Hye Kim (Leeds University)

Abstract: Legal scholarship frequently makes assumptions about how the case law changes, often using figurative language and metaphors to grasp the nature of incremental jurisprudential developments. In contrast, attempts at measuring the concept are few. This is mainly due to the highly complex and multi-faceted nature of the underlying theoretical construct. However, legal scholars must develop an appreciation of the nature and dynamics of incremental jurisprudential change if they are to formulate concrete policy recommendations. Therefore, this article aims to develop a novel measure of incremental jurisprudential change through the sample of EU competition law. To this end, it uses Rasch analysis, a method that has not previously been employed to scale human-coded data based on the systematic content analysis of text. Drawing on an original dataset of 335 manually coded competition law cases featuring Advocate General’s (AG) Opinions and the corresponding judgments of the European Court of Justice (ECJ), the article develops an item pool of 10 qualitative markers of jurisprudential change to construct a reliable and valid scale. The scale has good psychometric properties and demonstrates overall fit, item fit, person fit, targeting, and internal consistency. The findings were triangulated with qualitative case study evidence to provide novel insights into the dynamics of jurisprudential change and the actors who endorse it.

To register your interest for this event please contact Professor Oke Odudu (oo201@cam.ac.uk).