Sumário:A strong tradition of judicial self-restraint - and the challenge from Europe : Judicial self-restraint. Legal positivism and legal realism. The European impulse -- The RCHR in Danish law - interpretative reluctance, passive reception: A legislative call for status quo. A more complex legal reality. The need for more autonomous courts -- The EU law regime and its national counterparts - from reluctance to strategic involvement: Preliminary rulings as European judicial review. Who goes to court? Governments as litigants before the European Court of Justice. The Danish government's interventions in preliminary rulings from other member state courts -- Self-restraint means self-sidelining?