EU Copyright Law Harmonisation: An Empirical Analysis of National Courts Case Law

This book provides the first comprehensive comparative and empirical analysis of the state of harmonisation in EU copyright law in the 27 Member States, and the UK, at the level of national courts.

For 3 decades, the EU has harmonised many aspects of copyright law via EU legislation and the case law of the Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU). However, it is not known whether national courts actually comply with it, as a comprehensive analysis of the national case law has not yet been done. This book addresses this major gap in the literature.

In the book, a lawyer and a statistician analyse some of the most recent decisions on EU copyright law issued by the 27 Member States and the UK (pre- and post-Brexit), using doctrinal and quantitative methodologies. The main research question addressed is whether there is disharmony in the national case law and whether this is owed to Members States’ misimplementing EU copyright legislation, lack of clarity of EU legislation and/or case law, or national courts being unaware, misinterpreting or resisting CJEU case law.

The book provides detailed legal analyses and descriptive statistics per topic, per type of work, per country, across countries and over time supported by statistical analysis. Its findings and in-depth reflections on the law and how to improve it are of crucial relevance for policymakers and the judiciary at EU and national level and will interest scholarly audiences in the UK, EU, EEA and beyond.

Estelle Derclaye is Professor of Intellectual Property Law at the University of Nottingham, UK.
Gilles Stupfler is Professor of Statistics at the University of Angers, France.