1. To provide a database (for the first time) of all rulings before the Scottish courts in which EU law has been considered in the ruling;
2. To provide a quantitative analysis of the cases located for the database; including a quantitative analysis of general numbers of cases per year and over different periods since 1973 and similarly in relation to different areas of substantive law covered;
3. To consider the case-law in which preliminary rulings have been sought by the Scottish courts;
4. To provide a systemic overview of the application of EU law in the Scottish courts and allow for a broad assessment of the way(s) in which legal decision-making has evolved/been revised to accommodate EU law over the period of EU membership;
5. To act as a pilot project for further collaborative work following on from this research project in this subject area involving the PI.

All relevant case-law involving the application or consideration of EU law by the Supreme Court (in Scottish cases), the Court of Session, Sheriff Court and Employment Appeal Tribunals (sitting in Scotland) will be located and catalogued on the basis of name; citation; area of law; EU rule involved and a brief summary of the outcome. These will then be analysed quantitatively using SPSS. Details of all European Court of Justice preliminary rulings to the Scottish courts will also be collected.

This is a significant pilot study aiming to provide for the first time a comprehensive overview of the impact of EU law on legal rights in a Scottish context. This is also particularly timely given the ongoing Scotch Whisky Association minimum alcohol pricing case, the 2014 European election outcomes and support for UKIP at the General Election, and the anticipated referendum on the UK’s position in Europe. EU law is a core and key area of legal teaching across the Law Schools in Scotland. EU law is obligatory for Law Society of Scotland qualification. Law Schools have various specific EU law classes, core and elective, and EU law is also embedded across a range of specific subjects such as for example, employment law and competition law. Academics will be able to utilise the database for teaching and further research.

Furthermore, the study is intended to be primarily quantitative at this stage, and there is considerable scope for further work and study and innovation using the material compiled for the database. In particular, the PI has provisional plans to use this pilot study research project to apply for further funding to set up a collaborative workshop. Moreover, the PI plans to use this research project as a basis for a funding application to bring together specialists, including many academics in Scottish University Law Schools, to undertake a subsequent subject-based qualitative analysis of the impact of EU law in the Scottish courts and on the application of Scots law. The plan would be to assemble subject-matter specialists to assess the database results, confirm their validity and accuracy, and most importantly to undertake detailed qualitative analysis of the impact of EU law on Scottish courts decision-making and on legal rights within their specific subject-matter expertise. This would provide an in-depth and qualitative review of EU law’s impact on a wide range of Scots law since 1973. The PI has further provisional plans to use this pilot study to co-ordinate comparative work across the other legal systems in the UK, and potentially other Member States of the European Union, based on the general research methodology and research questions.