The Transformation of European Law: The Reformed Concept and its Quest for Comparison

Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law & International Law (MPIL) Research Paper No. 2016-14

Published as: European Law Beyond ‘Ever Closer Union’ Repositioning the Concept, its Thrust and the EJC’s Comparative Methodology. In: European Law Journal 22 (2016) Nr. 4, S. 519-538

25 Pages Posted: 24 May 2016 Last revised: 4 Jun 2020

See all articles by Armin von Bogdandy

Armin von Bogdandy

Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law

Date Written: May 24, 2016

Abstract

The article investigates competing understandings of European law. It supports, against the prevailing EU-centered understanding, an ecumenical concept that embraces EU law, supplementing international instruments, the European Convention on Human Rights, and, importantly, various domestic laws enacting or responding to such transnational law, as well as European comparative law. To keep the concept in sync with European politics, it posits a new idea that binds the parts together: to provide for a European legal space rather than further European integration (the ever closer union). This idea can also serve as European law’s functional equivalent to forming one legal order. European law thus conceived grasps the puzzling complex of interdependent legal orders, sets a common frame for corresponding reconstructions (European composite constructions, legal pluralism, network theories, federalism, or intergovernmentalism), and allows forces with diverging outlooks to meet in one legal field, on one more neutral disciplinary platform. Within this framework, European comparative law finds a new mission as well as a sound legal basis.

Keywords: European law, European integration, ever closer union, transformation of Europe, legal space, legal order, European comparative law, comparative studies in the Court of Justice of the European Union

JEL Classification: K33

Suggested Citation

von Bogdandy, Armin, The Transformation of European Law: The Reformed Concept and its Quest for Comparison (May 24, 2016). Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law & International Law (MPIL) Research Paper No. 2016-14, Published as: European Law Beyond ‘Ever Closer Union’ Repositioning the Concept, its Thrust and the EJC’s Comparative Methodology. In: European Law Journal 22 (2016) Nr. 4, S. 519-538, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2783702 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2783702

Armin Von Bogdandy (Contact Author)

Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law ( email )

Im Neuenheimer Feld 535
69120 Heidelberg, 69120
Germany

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