KS and KD v. Council and the Political Question in EU Law: Judicial Modulation and Mimetic Internalization

This article investigates the emerging relevance of the political question doctrine within European Union law, with particular attention to its increasing invocation in recent case law and, notably, in the Opinions of Advocates General in Common Foreign and Security Policy-related disputes, including KS and KD v. Council. Rather than presupposing the existence of a fully-fledged doctrine, the study examines whether a discernible trend toward its reception can be identified. To this end, the article combines a doctrinal analysis of the Court of Justice’s jurisprudence with a comparative inquiry into the origins, functions, and transformations of the political question doctrine in other legal systems. This dual methodological approach allows for a critical assessment of the extent to which references to the doctrine in EU law reflect processes of selective internalization, functional adaptation, or convergence with broader comparative patterns. The analysis shows that, rather than leading to the emergence of a distinct doctrine, these developments point to the gradual formation of a context-sensitive practice of judicial modulation, through which the Court calibrates the intensity of its review in politically sensitive areas.