Introduction:The Role of Scientific Expertise in EU Policy-Making: Ever Greater Contestation?

This introductory chapter presents the main purpose of the book and sets out the framework through which contestation of expertise is analysed. We explain the need for an institutional approach to understand the growing contestation of expertise, its implications for policy-making and the legal order, as well as potential ways forward. The chapter defends that we need to understand not only the processes and actors in the expertise arena, but rather we also need to focus on the factors and institutional setting that drive such contestation and map its implications. Contestation of expertise is a particular challenge for the European Union and its fragile reliance on multiple channels of legitimation. This introductory chapter lays out the dilemma for the EU and the existential threat of contestation: without recourse to expertise as a basis for policy-making, the EU would be ill-equipped to face the potentially centrifugal tendencies of polarised public opinion or incommensurable policy-preferences. The chapter sets out the ground for the substantive chapters and outlines their main content