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

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'. - Gives a deeper historical and sociological sense of the role of EU law, which will appeal to lawyers and in particular EU legal scholars - Suggests a renewed historiography of the role of professional networks, lawyers in particular, in shaping the historical trajectory of EU polity-building - Offers a new toolbox for social sciences through Pierre Bourdieu's critical sociology (in particular field theory)

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.