Research Papers

Legal approaches to the EU have traditionally, and correctly, focussed on the central importance of the Community method as a means to pursue European integration. But as early as 1995, some legal scholars have looked for 'new legal dynamics' (Shaw and More, 1995), beyond Court-focused scholarship, or such singular accounts of the role of law in the integration process. Legal scholars have increasingly looked towards alternative methods and processes of EU integration, including their 'law-like' qualities, as the EU has moved into new law and policy-making areas. Some political scientists have also considered the role of law, but often a rather 'thin' notion of 'law-ness', focused only upon 'command and control' and not upon law's other qualities, modes or interactions with 'non-law-like' means of integration. This paper begins from the premise that the EU will need to be creative in pushing forward the agenda in areas where the Community method has either been limited or non-existent. Hence, it argues for a new approach to the study of the roles of law in European integration, which neither ignores the various 'law-like' qualities of both 'old' and 'newer' approaches to integration, nor claims a centrality or exclusive authenticity for those 'law-like' qualities, or the role of law. In this agenda, it calls on EU legal scholars to be more explicit about their contributions to EU studies, and for scholars from all disciplines to continue to problematise notions of 'law-ness', and the roles of law in EU integration, in their accounts.