The State of the European Union, 6

Law, Politics and Society is the sixth and latest addition to the European Union Studies Association series, State of the European Union. The contributors of this volume take the dynamic interaction between law, politics and society as a starting point to think critically about recent developments and future innovations in European integration and EU studies. The book provides an overview of key events between 2000 and 2002 in the European Union, while illuminating how these institutional (formal legal) developments impact ordinary individuals and EU politics. For example, the European Convention with the possibility of an EU constitution is viewed not only as a new institutional development, but we examine what impact the creation of judicially enforceable rights has for Europeans and European integration. How does the opportunity for new rights claims alter the balance of power between individuals and EU organizations, such as the European Court of Justice, vis a vis national governments in EU policy expansion?

Importantly, the volume also seeks to provide a unique and interdisciplinary approach to studying the European Union by bringing together both legal scholars and political scientists. Chapter contributors offer readers both sophisticated theoretical and empirical accounts of these new developments. Issues such as enlargement, immigration reform, and monetary union require not only a precise understanding of an increasingly complex set of formal legal rules (the domain of legal scholars), but equally important are the effects on ordinary citizens and political participation (the very power struggles that concern political scientists). This volume seeks to integrate these two approaches, not only by including the scholarship in a single volume, but by asking individual contributors to think outside their respective disciplines. The division between the legal and political, as many would argue, is often both artificial and unproductive. Our volume seeks to bridge this divide.