22 March 2024
The Triumph of EU Law in Context?
Whereas law-in-context analyses of Community law were relatively rare in the early 1990s, they seemed to flourish from that point onwards. Unsurprisingly, even “mainstream” journals, such as the Common Market Law Review, now strive to attract pieces that combine legal analysis with social, political or economic insights. Does that mean that we are all “contextualists” now? Not in my view. Continue reading >>
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21 March 2024
Colonialism and EU Law
In 1957, when the Treaty of Rome was signed and founded what later became the European Union (EU), four out of six of the original Member States were colonial powers. An important methodological question for EU law research is how this historical fact has affected the development of EU law. I argue that answering the question of how Europe’s centuries long history of colonialism has shaped EU law is not just a historical exercise but also a starting point for an examination of EU law of today. Continue reading >>20 March 2024
EU Law Through the State Lens
The conceptual apparatus that frames our knowledge of EU administrative law today has its origins in the legal scholarship that established a new field in the turn of the 1980s and during the 1990s. This scholarly field owes much of its uncontested existence to a series of major handbooks, which systematized materials that hitherto had been sparse and scattered, first in German, then in English and later still in French. Revisiting the past may provide some clues as to the role legal scholars can and should have in a period in which we may be witnessing an epochal transition in Europe. Continue reading >>
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20 March 2024
Establishing Law in Context
Law in Context (LIC) was a revolution in EU law studies. It began in the 1980s and ‘90s and its effects continue today. This blogpost sketches selected basic landmarks. Inevitably it is a personal perspective, because if the short history of LIC shows anything, it is that there are almost as many views of ‘context’ as there are LIC scholars. To fully understand the LIC movement, it is essential to consider it in context; furthermore, despite changes in context, LIC remains pertinent today. Continue reading >>
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19 March 2024
EU Law and Legal Theory
European law is a very strange creature. It is something that has been created, produced, mostly by jurisprudence and doctrine, and this makes European law especially challenging and interesting for scholars, because it has been, in many respects, a product of scholars. How should we approach the study of European law? How could we approach in a sensible way the study of European law? Continue reading >>
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19 March 2024
Reconnecting EU Legal Studies to European Societies
EU legal studies suffer from a disconnect with social reality. If we need a method, it is one that allows us to reconnect with European societies as a bustle of unsettled forms of life, from both an existential and social perspective. Departing from classic institutional and constitutional approaches to EU law, while endorsing the critical turn in the EU legal studies, I will argue in favour of a new “anti-transcendental” perspective. Continue reading >>
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18 March 2024
Becoming a (Critical) EU Law Scholar Today
Turning the existential crisis of Europe into critical knowledge, called for by Loïc Azoulai, requires – among other things – critical scholars. The question is, however, whether the present conditions allow for such people to emerge. I discuss only four of the many obstacles that critical scholarship faces today and conclude with a call for something that might be called “critical scholarship about legal scholarship”. Continue reading >>
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18 March 2024
Controversies over Methods in EU Law
Methodological issues pervade contemporary debates in EU law. There are many reasons for this. Some are specific to the subject matter of EU law itself. The multiple crises that the European Union is experiencing lead EU law scholars to question their classical conception of EU law: a law of integration that should more or less naturally lead to a constitutional or federal order. These crises may also lead scholars to question their relationship with the European institutions, which have been central to the development of the core concepts of EU law and of EU law as a disciplinary field. Continue reading >>
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27 October 2023
Turning the Exception into the Rule
In January 2023, Italy’s new government adopted a reform that heavily curtailed immigrant rights to speed up return procedures. Between September and October, several judgments issued by the Catania Tribunal declared the reform in violation of EU law. The judgments led to backlash, with PM Meloni and other members of the government accusing them of being politically motivated. While such political attacks on judges must always be condemned, they are particularly unwarranted given that the Catania Tribunal’s judges were correct in finding the new Italian border procedures incompatible with EU law. Continue reading >>03 April 2023
A Fond Embrace?
As with any relationship, significant anniversaries offer us an opportunity to take stock. Looking backwards allows us not only to appreciate how far we have come, but also, perhaps, to reflect on the direction in which we might be heading. To date, upwards of 2,200 judgments of the Irish courts have considered EU or Community law in some form. Against this context, this short contribution reflects on the reception of EU law in the Irish courts since 1973. Continue reading >>
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