A new alliance of de-legalisation and legal formalism? Reflections on responses to the social deficit of the European integration project

Law and Critique

Volumn 19, Issue 3, 2008, Pages 235-253

  Joerges, Christian ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF BREMEN   (Germany)

Author keywords

'Social Europe'; Conflict of laws; Ordo liberalism; Social deficit; Socio economic division; Unity diversity

Indexed keywords

EID: 55349097813     PISSN: 09578536     EISSN: 15728617     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1007/s10978-008-9035-9     Document Type: Review

References (65)

1. Students of European law tend to focus their analyses too much on the history of 'institutionalised Europe' rather than on the diverse histories of the Member States and their complex relations; J.H.H. Weiler's dichotomy between 'supranational law' and 'political intergovernmentalism' reflects this perspective (see, also, infra n. 14).
2. F.W. Scharpf, "The European Social Model: Coping with the Challenges of Diversity", Journal of Common Market Studies 40 (2002), 645-670. It deserves to be stressed that the founding fathers of ordo-liberalism to whom we owe the theory of the economic constitution have insisted on the interdependence of both spheres (the Interdependenz der Ordnungen;
3. see, famously, W. Eucken, Grundzüge der Wirtschaftspolitik (Tübingen: Mohr/Siebeck, 1952), 6th ed. 1990, 180 et seq.;
4. out of the rich literature on the interdependence theorem, see, for an extremely subtle reconstruction, M. Wegmann, Früher Neoliberalismus und europäische Integration: Interdependenz der nationalen, supranationalen und internationalen Ordnung von Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft (1932-1965) (Baden-Baden: Nomos, 2002), in particular at 369 et seq.
5. Friedrich August von Hayek was the most outspoken critic of this thesis; the turn to welfare policies means taking The Road to Serfdom (London: Routledge, 1944). A legendary debate in the young German Federal Republic between Wolfgang Abendroth and Ernst Forsthoff concerned precisely that problématique
6. (see A. Fischer-Lescano and O. Eberl, "Der Kampf um ein soziales und demokratisches Recht. Zum 100. Geburtstag von Wolfgang Abendroth" (2006) Blätter für deutsche und internationale Politik 51, 577-585) and these debates are going on until today
7. (see C. Harvey, ed. Special Issue on "Social Democracy", Canadian Journal of Law and Jurisprudence on Social Democracy 17 (2004)).
8. For a brilliant recent analysis of this interdependence see J.P. McCormick, Weber, Habermas, and Transformations of the European State. Constitutional, Social, and Supranational Democracy (Cambridge, Cambridge UP, 2007).
9. Viking and Laval can even be read as a revival of ordo-liberal ideas; see the third section in this paper, infra.
10. European integration was, in its early years, by no means an uncontested project in the ordo-liberal school (see M. Wegmann, supra n. 3). Her analyses fit well the enquiry into the politics of competition policy by Y. Karagiannis, "Preference Heterogeneity and Equilibrium Institutions: The Case of European Competition Policy", unpublished doctoral thesis, EUI Florence (2007), ch. 7.
11. Significant, here, is A. Müller-Armack, "Die Wirtschaftsordnung des Gemeinsamen Marktes", ibid., Wirtschaftsordnung und Wirtschaftspolitik (Freiburg: Rombach, 1966), 401 et seq.
12. See J.H.H. Weiler, "The Community System: the Dual Character of Supranationalism", in Yearbook of European Law 1 (1981), 257-306.
13. Most recently, A. Vauchet, "A Europe of Norms. A Political Sociology of a 'Community of Law'", 2007 (manuscript on file with author).
14. See the classical studies by J. Habermas: Legitimationsprobleme im Spätkapitalismus (Frankfurt a.M.: Suhrkamp, 1973);
15. Zur Rekonstruktion des Historischen Materialismus (Frankfurt a.M.: Suhrkamp, 1976), and J.P. McCormick, supra n. 5, 176 et. seq.
16. See T. Judt, Postwar. A History of Europe Since 1945 (New York: Penguin, 2005) at 777 et seq.
17. Verfassung in German has a double meaning. It can be a legal constitution and a social structure or pattern. The notion of Ordnung (order), too, comprises this twofold meaning. This clarification is necessary to convey our idea of a constitutionalisation of the economy, of other societal spheres or parts of the legal system. Such constitutionalisation can either claim the dignity of constitutional law (e.g., supremacy within the legal system) or be an integral part of the constitutional order. In this latter sense, Jürgen Habermas talks of the co-originality of private and public law; see his Faktizität und Geltung (Frankfurt a.M., Suhrkamp, 1992), 112 et seq.
18. This all fits well into the analysis of "the national configuration of the state in the Golden Age", by St. Leibfried and M. Zürn, "Reconfiguring the National Constellation", in St. Leibfried and Michael Zürn, eds, Transformation of the State (Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2005), 93-117. It also seems worth noting that the ordo-liberal construct has structural affinities, or is at least compatible, with J.H.H. Weiler's analysis of the co-existence of and interdependence between legal supranationalism and political intergovernmentalism in the EEC (see supra n. 8).
19. EC Commission, "Commission White Paper to the European Council on Completion of the Internal Market", COM (85) 310 final of 14 June 1985.
20. For more details see C. Joerges, "Economic Law, the Nation-State and the Maastricht Treaty", in R. Dehousse, ed., Europe after Maastricht: an Ever Closer Union? (Munich: C.H. Beck, 1994), 29-62.
21. See M. Streit and W. Mussler, "The Economic Constitution of the European Community. From 'Rome' to 'Maastricht'", European Law Journal 1 (1995), 5-30.
22. K. Polanyi, The Great Transformation: The Political and Economic Origins of Our Time (1944) (Boston: Bacon Press, 1992), at 45-58, and 71-80.
23. See F. Block, "Towards a New Understanding of Economic Modernity", in C. Joerges, B. Stråth and P. Wagner, eds, The Economy as a Polity. The Political Construction of Modern Capitalism - An Interdisciplinary Perspective (London: UCL Press, 2005), 3; and most recently J. Beckert, "The Great Transformation of Embeddedness: Karl Polanyi and the New Economic Sociology", MPIfG Discussion Paper 07/1.
24. H.P. Ipsen, "Die Verfassungsrolle des Europäischen Gerichtshofs für die Integration", in J. Schwarze, ed., Der Europäische Gerichtshof als Verfassungsgericht und Rechtsschutzinstanz (Baden-Baden: Nomos, 1982), 29 et seq.
25. C. Joerges and J. Neyer, "From Intergovernmental Bargaining to Deliberative Political Processes", European Law Journal 3 (1997), 273-299.
26. Ibid., at 293.
27. C. Joerges "'Deliberative Political Processes' Revisited: What have we learnt about the Legitimacy of Supranational Decision-Making", Journal of Common Market Studies 44 (2006), 779-802, at 790.
28. Case 26/62, [1963] ECR 1 - Van Gend en Loos v. Nederlandse Administratie der Belastingen.
29. R. Mayntz, "The Architecture of Multi-level Governance of Economic Sectors", MPIfG Discussion Paper 07/13, at 22-24.
30. M. Zürn, "The State in the Post-National Constellation - Societal Denationalisation and Multi-Level Governance", Oslo: ARENA Working Paper No. 35/1999.
31. I refrain here from explaining two further implications in depth, but I shall mention them. One is methodological: European conflict of laws requires a proceduralisation of the category of law, which has to be understood as a 'law of lawmaking' (see F.I. Michelman, Brennan and Democracy, New Jersey: Princeton UP, 1999, 34),
32. a Rechtfertigungs-Recht (R. Wiethölter, "Just-ifications of a Law of Society", in O. Perez and G. Teubner, eds, Paradoxes and Inconsistencies in the Law (Oxford: Hart, 2005), 65-77). The second concerns the need for a 'second order of conflict of laws'. This need stems from the 'turn to governance' that we witness not just at the European level but also with nation states. Just as nation states have long had to learn to deal with complex conflict situations, to integrate expertise in legal decision-making and to co-operate with non-governmental actors, the EU had to build up governance arrangements which complement its primary and secondary law.
33. 'Second order conflict of laws' seeks to constitutionalise this sphere, primarily through a proceduralisation of law; for more detail, see C. Joerges, "Integration through De-legalisation?", European Law Review 33 (2008), 291-312.
34. Article I-8 of the Draft Treaty on a Constitution for Europe, OJ C310/1, 16/12/ 2004.
35. "Erste Hilfe für Europa", DIE ZEIT no.49/2007.
36. The Lisbon Treaty as signed on 13 December 2007 does not advance this agenda.
37. Article 3 (3), DCT.
38. See Title IV DCT.
39. See, especially, Article I-14 (4) DCT on the assignment of a competence 'to promote and co-ordinate the economic and employment policies of the Member States' has been repealed. Article I-11(3) as amended on 22 June 2004.
40. See, in more detail, C. Joerges and F. Rödl, "The "Social Market Economy" as Europe's Social Model?", in L. Magnusson and B. Stråth, eds, A European Social Citizenship? Pre-conditions for Future Policies in Historical Light (Brussels: Lang, 2005) 125-158.
41. See the contributions to G. de Búrca and B. de Witte, eds, Social Rights in Europe (Oxford: Hart, 2005)
42. and G. de Búrca and J. Scott, eds, Law and New Governance in the EU and the US (Oxford: Hart, 2006).
43. See C. Joerges and F. Rödl, supra n. 33.
44. "The Trade Union Movement and the European Union: Judgment Day", European Law Journal 13 (2007), 279-308.
45. Case C-438/05, Viking Line Abp OU Viking Line Eesti v The International Transport Workers' Federation, The Finnish Seamen's Union. For a detailed analysis, see B. Bercusson "'Six Scenarios in Search of an Author...' Or Solutions for the European Court in the Cases of Laval and Viking" (Typescript, London, 2007), on file with author.
46. Case C-438/05, para.18.
47. Ibid., para. 44.
48. Ibid., para. 45.
49. Ibid., para. 46.
50. Ibid., para. 57. Space constraints here do not permit a discussion of the case law the Court invokes, so it must suffice to recall the sensitivity with which Community law and policy proceeded in the cases of obstacles to free movement created by 'private' standardisation. See H. Schepel, The Constitution of Private Governance. Product Standards in the Regulation of Integrating Markets (Oxford: Hart, 2005) 37 et seq.
51. Case C-438/05, para. 78.
52. Ibid., para. 81, 84.
53. Ibid., para. 88, 89.
54. Case C-341/05, Laval un Partneri Ltd v Svenska Byggnadsarbetareforbundet, Svenska Byggnadsarbetareforbundet, Avdelning 1, Svenska Elektrikerforbundet.
55. Directive 96/71/EC concerning the posting of workers in the framework of the provision of services. OJ 1996, L18/1.
56. This Article provides in its first sub-section: 'Collective agreements or arbitration awards which have been declared universally applicable' means collective agreements or arbitration awards which must be observed by all undertakings in the geographical area and in the profession or industry concerned; see Case C-341/05, paras. 65, 84.
57. See para. 58 of his opinion in Case C-341/05.
58. Ibid., 99.
59. See Case C-341/05, paras. 10, 92.
60. Case C-341/05, paras. 91, 93 & 103.
61. Ibid., para. 97.
62. Ibid., para. 105.
63. The second question the Court was asked concerned the importance of collective agreements signed by Laval in Latvia. The Court here was not considering that such agreement should be recognised as equivalent to those of Sweden - such a suggestion would be plainly incompatible with the posted workers' directive. Instead, it held that it was discriminatory to treat Laval as an undertaken which had not concluded any collective agreement (para. 116).
64. B. Currie, "The Constitution and the Choice of Governmental Law: Interests and the Judicial Function", (1958), in Selected Essays (Durham NC: Duke UP, 1963), 188-282, at 272.
65. F. Rödl, "Weltbürgerliches Kollisionsrecht" Ph.D. Thesis EUI 2008, Part 2, A II.2, suggests that Currie's objection against a weighing of governmental interests in cases of true conflicts is to be understood in the light of the presence of a constitutional court in the American federal system. My own evaluation of the different constitutional constellations goes in the opposite direction.