Integration and the Europeanisation of the Law

Book abstract:

The paper elaborates and tests a dynamic theory of European integration, and examines how national legal systems have participated in, and are affected by, the development of a supranational, constitutional legal order. The paper is divided into two parts. Part I examines the relationship between market forces, lobbying in the Commission, EC legislation, and the legal system. The data analysis demonstrates that the development of causal connections between these four processes produced a self-reinforcing system that has largely determined the pace and scope of integration. The analysis also shows that the construction and operation of the EC's legal system has been a crucial component of integration, a process conceived broadly as a joint market-building and polity-building project. The second part of the paper explores how litigants, national judges, and the European Court have interacted, through the Art. 234 preliminary reference procedure. Some important puzzles have been, at least partly, solved, but others deserve the full attention of lawyers and social scientists. Many of these relate to the complex, multidimensional impact of the development of European law on national legal systems.