The Court of Justice in the archives project: analysis of the Deference II case (43/75)

This Working Paper is part of the CJEU in the Archives Project, that aimed to bring the archives to life through an analysis of a selection of cases. The case chosen for this paper is the Defrenne II case, handed down by the Court of Justice in 1976. The paper focuses on an archival analysis of this landmark judgement, establishing a women’s right to equal treatment in the workplace. The dossier offered valuable insight into the case and showed that the case was about more than just the principle of equal pay. In fact, other principles, notably the principle of non-retroactivity were extensively debated in the dossier. In addition, it becomes clear that the court’s decision did not come out of the blue, but was influenced by several factors, that are analysed in this paper. As a conclusion, this case illustrates that the release of the archives allows for a broader and more thorough understanding of court’s famous decisions and is an asset for research in various disciplines.