Coherence Out of Chaos: Mapping European Union Law by Running Randomly Through the Maze of CJEU Case Law

Abstract

Recent research has demonstrated the ability of network analysis to better understand law. In this study we apply network analysis to the case law of the European Court of Justice (CJEU) in order understand its role as a source of law. In doing so, we apply network analysis tools not previously used in legal scholarship, most significantly (i) a modified version of the PageRank algorithm, (ii) the Map Equation, and (iii) resampling to infer “missing” links. In the article we demonstrate that this method can help us to understand not only the CJEU’s case law but law generally.

Keywords: Empirical legal studies, Empirical legal science, Jurisprudence, Social Networks, Network Analysis, European Union Law, European Law, European Court of Justice, CJEU, ECJ