Lawyering Europe : European law as a transnational social field

While scholarly writing has dealt with the role of law in the process of European integration, so far it has shed little light on the lawyers and communities of lawyers involved in that process. Law has been one of the most thoroughly investigated aspects of the European integration process, and EU law has become a well-established academic discipline, with the emergence more recently of an impressive body of legal and political science literature on 'European law in context'. Yet, this field has been dominated by an essentially judicial narrative, focused on the role of the European courts, underestimating in the process the multifaceted roles lawyers and law play in the EU polity, notably the roles they play beyond the litigation arena. This book promotes a deeper understanding of European law as a social and political phenomenon, presenting a more complete view of the European legal field by looking beyond the courts, and at the same time broadening the scholarly horizon by exploring the ways in which European law is actually made. To do this, the book describes the roles of the great variety of actors who stand behind legal norms and decisions, bringing together perspectives from various disciplines - law, political science, political sociology, and history - to offer a global multi-disciplinary reassessment of the role of 'law' and 'lawyers' in the European integration process.-- List of Contributors vii -- Introduction. Euro-lawyering, Transnational Social Fields and European Polity-Building 1 Antoine Vauchez -- Part I: Repeat Players -- 1. ‘Ten Majestic Figures in Long Amaranth Robes’: The Formation of the Court of Justice of the European Communities 21 Antonin Cohen -- 2. The Role of Legal Services in the Elaboration of European Legislation 43 Jean Paul Jacqué -- 3. From the Margins on the European Legal Field: The Governments’ Agents and their Influence on the Development of European Union Law 55 Marie-Pierre Granger -- Part II: Centres and Peripheries -- 4. Courts United? On European Judicial Networks 75 Maartje de Visser and Monica Claes -- 5. European Union Law: A Unified Academic Discipline? 101 Bruno de Witte -- 6. The ECHR and the Birth of (European) Human Rights Law as an Academic Discipline 117 Stéphanie Hennette-Vauchez -- Part III: European Elites and their Legal Credentials -- 7. Where Have all the Lawyers Gone? Structures and Transformations of Top European Commission Officials’ Legal Training 137 Didier Georgakakis and Marine de Lassalle -- 8. The Creation of Institutional Expertise at the European Parliament: Legal and Political Resources of the Members of the Constitutional Affairs Committee 153 Laurent Godmer and Guillaume Marrel -- 9. Law and Lawyers in the Brussels World of Commercial Consultants 177 Christian Lahusen -- Part IV: The Disputed Role of Law in the Government of Europe -- 10. The Power of Legal Knowledge in the Reform of Fundamental Law: The Case of the European Charter of Fundamental Rights 197 Mikael Rask Madsen -- 11. Soft Law and the Rule of Law in the European Union: Revision or Redundancy? 221 Mark Dawson -- 12. Eurolegalism and the European Legal Field 243 R Daniel Kelemen -- 13. Opportunities and Limits of a Weak Field: Lawyers and the Genesis of a Field of European Economic Power 259 Yves Dezalay -- Index 28