Democrat-led coalition governments; indeed, for three years in the late 1970s,
a period known as the ‘historic compromise’, the Christian Democrats relied
upon support from the communists). How much Eurocommunism was really a
purely Italian phenomenon is still hard to tell. The Spanish Communist Party,
only free to practise overt politics after the death ofFranco, shared much of
the creed but had lost most of its support by the end of the 1980s, while the
Parti Communiste Franc ̧ais, which suffered a steady electoral decline from
the mid-1970s onwards, remained much more staunchly orthodox, even
Stalinist. So broad was the social backing for the PCI, and so moderate many
of its policies, that it was sometimes doubted whether the ‘Communist’ part of
their labels was really very important. Indeed, faced with the disintegration of
communism in Eastern Europe, the party acknowledged this by changing its
name to the Partito Democratica della Sinistra (Democratic Party of the Left)
in 1991. If anything it has increased its hold on the left of Italian politics with
the disenchantment that followed the failure of the so-calledSecond Italian
Republicto improve much on the old. Like many of the discredited remnants
of communist parties in Eastern Europe, it is likely that the Western European
communists will seek to re-establish themselves as social democratic parties,
but associal democracyitself is increasingly seen as outdated, to be replaced
by some form ofThird Way, their long-term survival and significance may
depend on remaining nearer to their earlier political form.
European Court of Justice (ECJ)
The Court of Justice of theEuropean Union (EU), popularly referred to as
the European Court of Justice, is the judicial branch of the EU, charged with
ruling on the legality of actions by the Commission, Council of Ministers and
Parliament. It also rules on the validity of laws and regulations passed by
national governments in areas where these conflict with EU law, and, to a lesser
extent, on the legality of actions concerning individual citizens of the member
states. Its jurisdiction is complex, and often involves hearing appeals from
national courts. Each of the three original European communities, the
European Economic Community, the European Coal and Steel Community
and the European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom), recognized the
need for a body impartially to interpret its rules, and from its beginning the
Court of Justice was busy. It was the administrative amalgamation of the three
communities in 1967 that gave the Court its real impetus. The Court has a
total of 19 members, usually comprising one judge from every member nation,
plus an additional judge from one of the larger nations, and six advocates
general. Although there are six chambers, or panels of judges, important cases
are invariably heard by the full court. There are two features of the Court’s
structure and practice that are unfamiliar in thecommon lawworld. The first
European Court of Justice (ECJ)