EU law and its disconnections from society II

Abstract

While the first decades of European integration were characterized by faith in a Union ever closer to its people, this belief has faded in recent years. Scholars have pointed out an increasing disconnect between EU law and social reality (Azoulai, 2024), and a discrepancy between ‘the grand discourse of the ever-increasing reach of EU law and the far more complex and modest reality on the ground’(Vauchez, 2020). This hiatus between EU law and society manifests in different ways. Perhaps, the most visible one is what we call ‘litigation disconnects’: situations, geographical areas, pieces of legislation, or policy fields where EU law is under-litigated or not litigated at all. We can also think of these in terms of 'cold spots' of EU litigation, as opposed to the hotspots studied in the literature (Kelemen & Pavone, 2016). The existence of litigation disconnects is consequential, as they challenge our idea of an ‘ever more powerful court’ (Martinsen 2015) and the feasibility of EU governance through decentralized judicial enforcement (Pollack 2003). To be sure, litigation disconnects are only part of the story. EU laws and policies themselves can be disconnected from reality. Examples of such ‘misfits’ are norms that are poorly designed or designed in ways that make them out of touch with society and its needs. Structurally, some persons and places in Europe, because of their position or identity, are unable to benefit from EU law, because they do not align with the EU lawmaker’s expectations and values. They often fall through the grids of a rather rigid system of constructed legal categories. This panel will explore different instances of disconnects between EU law and social reality. First, it characterizes cold spots as a structural implementation deficit that marks the EU as a failed federal system. Then it turns to personal misfits, where common categories such as “consumer”, “mobility”, and “posted workers” will be re-assessed and become more elusive than we are used to thinking. Finally, the papers turn to instances of “language disconnections”, where the words used in EU legislation serve to disguise reality or conceal an uncomfortable truth.

Title	Details
The EU's 'Internal Market Detour' for Defending Democracy	View Paper Details
Persistence and Change in EU Pesticide Law: Around and Beyond Pesticide Denialism	View Paper Details
Only weak enforcement? Structural reasons for the EU’s disconnect – comparing the single market and the arrest warrant	View Paper Details
The Seasonal workers directive: much law about nobody?	View Paper Details
The Achmea Paradox. An Accounting Error at the Heart of Europe	View Paper Details