The Benefits of Time Travel: Harnessing the Potential of the Historical Archives of the Court of Justice for Legal Research

(Series Information) European Papers - A Journal on Law and Integration, 2021 6(2), 933-940 | Article | (Table of Contents) I. Introduction: the added value of the archive for legal researchers. - II. Travelling across time and across cases: transversal Project insights. | (Abstract) This Article engages with a core objective of the Court of Justice in the Archives Project: how best to demonstrate and evaluate the potential of the Historical Archives of the Court of Justice for the purposes of deepening and furthering legal research. It considers two forms of novelty in that light: first, finding out things that are "literally" new; and, second, being alerted to analytical possibilities that arise from looking deeply into a case dossier. To illustrate these instances of research novelty, the Article identifies themes - as well as questions - emerging from the individual reports and from the transversal analysis made possible through the Project, highlighting particular strengths or "added value" factors in that context. It also reflects on the limits of the Archives from the perspective that not all Court of Justice mysteries can, or should, be uncovered.