Someone to Talk to? The Non-Use of the US Supreme Court Precedents in the Case Law of the Court of Justice of the European Union

This article deals with cross-fertilization as the use made by courts of foreign and international legal sources. More specifically, it focuses on the use of the US Supreme Court precedents made by the Court of Justice of the European Union. By scrutinizing the latter’s case law and proving that, as a general rule, it has referred to the US Supreme Court decisions in a merely ornamental fashion, it provides reasons to believe that, as far as the relation between the US Supreme Court and the Court of Justice of the European Union, cross-fertilization is just an illusion or, on a more positive note, a mere aspiration that has not been achieved yet.