Introduction to the Research Handbook on the Politics of EU Law

Abstract

Is there ever an ideal time to publish a volume on the contemporary state of law and politics in the European Union (EU)? The entry into force of the Treaty of Lisbon (2009), having ‘rescued’ parts of the Draft Treaty Establishing a Constitution for Europe, was supposed to herald a new chapter in European integration, with greater institutional stability and coherence, a consolidation of its achievements and a focus on furthering integration in areas where only limited steps had been taken. However, despite the advanced stage of European integration, the decade since Lisbon has been marked by a series of crises. Whilst the EU is certainly used to facing serious crises, dealing with them and often emerging with renewed goals and impetus, many of the recent challenges are unprecedented and go to the heart of what the EU is – and stands for. The economic and financial crises; questions over the future of the euro; the lack of collective responses to migration and regional instability; democratic and rule of law backsliding in some Member States; the UK referendum on leaving the EU and the complexities of Brexit negotiations, and more recently the challenges of coordinating the fight against the coronavirus pandemia, have dominated the debates. All bring to the fore the complex relationship between law and politics in the EU, and revive or renew discussions about the role of law and legal actors in European integration. Law has always played a central role in European integration.1 Whilst new forms of integration take shape, and modes of governance have diversified, law continues to play a primordial, yet evolving, role in EU integration and governance in general, and in addressing these multiple challenges. EU law, in any case, does not operate in a political and social vacuum. It is influenced by multiple societal forces and impacts back on them in a continually iterative process. This Research Handbook introduces and considers contemporary academic perspectives on the politics of EU law. Its object of study is the law of the EU, in its various forms and shapes, its complex and multifaceted institutional framework and system of governance, the broad spectrum of policies it covers, and its relationship with emerging forms of global law. The ongoing challenges facing the EU have thrown a different light on European integration and governance, and invited (or even forced) scholars to revisit some assumptions about the dynamics, nature and purpose