The Several Internal Markets

Summary:

This article discusses the concept of the internal market. It argues that the internal market is a legal concept that is both ambiguous and marked by heterogeneity. The purpose of this paper is to traverse the ambiguous and heterogeneous character of the EU’s internal market (and related phenomena such as the EEA) and to explain that there are in fact several ‘internal markets’ to be found in and beyond the EU. This paper is not about Brexit: it is about the definition of the internal market. But Brexit has brought into focus that troublingly imprecise definition, and some of the confusion about hard and soft versions of Brexit stems from the absence of a secure anchor for the debate.