Brokering Europe: Euro-Lawyers and the Making of a Transnational Polity

by Antoine Vauchez

Overview

Since the 1960s, the nature and the future of the European Union have been defined in legal terms. Yet, we are still in need of an explanation as to how this entanglement between law and EU polity-building emerged and how it was maintained over time. While most of the literature offers a disembodied account of European legal integration, Brokering Europe reveals the multifaceted roles Euro-lawyers have played in EU polity, notably beyond the litigation arena. In particular, the book points at select transnational groups of multipositioned legal entrepreneurs which have been in a situation to elevate the role of law in all sorts of EU venues. In doing so, it draws from a new set of intellectual resources (field theory) and empirical strategies only very recently mobilized for the study of the EU. Grounded on an extensive historical investigation, Brokering Europe provides a revised narrative of the 'constitutionalization of Europe'.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781107042360
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	02/26/2015
Series:	Cambridge Studies in European Law and Policy
Pages:	278
Product dimensions:	6.30(w) x 9.29(h) x 0.87(d)

About the Author

Antoine Vauchez is a Research Professor at the Centre européen de sociologie et de science politique, Université Paris 1-Sorbonne/CNRS.

Table of Contents

Introduction; Part I. Unity through Law. Inventing Europe's 'Integration Programme': 1. Three treaties, one community. Institution-building and legal strategies to unify Europe; 2. The force of a weak field. The transnational field of European law and the formation of Europe's polity; 3. The 'Van Gend en Loos' moment and the making of Europe's integration program; Part II. Jurisprudence, Code, Constitution: Europe's Building Blocks: 4. 'Jurisprudence'. Transnational esprit de corps and the Court's perpetual constitutional momentum; 5. 'The code'. The formation of the Acquis Communautaire and the legal objectification in Europe; 6. 'Constitution'. Treaties' fragmentation and Europe's constitutional fetishism.

Editorial Reviews

'... Brokering Europe reveals the multifaceted roles Euro-lawyers have played in EU polity, notably beyond the litigation arena. In particular, the book points at select transnational groups of multipositioned legal entrepreneurs that have been in a situation to elevate the role of law in all sorts of EU venues. In doing so, it draws from a new set of intellectual resources (field theory) and empirical strategies only very recently mobilized for the study of the EU. Grounded on an extensive historical investigation, Brokering Europe provides a revised narrative of the 'constitutionalization of Europe'.' Hans-W. Micklitz, Journal of Consumer Policy

From the Publisher