The transnational politics of judicialization. Van Gend en Loos and the making of EU polity

European Law Journal

Volumn 16, Issue 1, 2010, Pages 1-28

  Vauchez, Antoine ^a  

^a CNRS   (France)

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EID: 71949127603     PISSN: 13515993     EISSN: 14680386     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1111/j.1468-0386.2009.00494.x     Document Type: Article

References (119)

1. J. Weiler, 'Rewriting Van Gend en Loos: Towards a Normative Theory of ECJ Hermeneutics', in O. Wiklund (ed), Judicial Discretion in European Perspective (Kluwer Law International, 2003), 151.
2. R. Lecourt, 'Qu'eut été le droit des Communautés sans les arrêts de 1963 et 1964?', Mélanges Jean Boulouis: l'Europe et le droit (Dalloz, 1991), 350.
3. D. Simon, 'Retour du mythe du gouvernement des juges?', (2006) JurisClasseur - Europe 1. Here, and throughout the article, the translations of the quotations are the author's.
4. On the saliency of this model, see U. Haltern, 'Integration through Law', in A. Wiener and T. Diez (eds), European Integration Theory (Oxford University Press, 1997), 177-196
5. more recently, L. Conant, 'The Politics of Legal Integration', (2007) 20 Common Market Studies 39-56.
6. For a review of this literature, see A. Vauchez, 'Democratic Empowerment through Euro-law. Review Article', (2008) 7 European Political Science 444-452.
7. As any foundational myth, the exegesis of Van Gend en Loos and Costa offers a selective reading of history. Quite emblematically, the ECJ's selection of its most important decisions presented in the languages of the new Member States that joined the EU in 2004 starts with the decision Van Gend en Loos of 5 February 1963. Available at http://curia.europa.eu/cs/content/juris/data57/liste.htm (accessed 25 September 2008).
8. Highlighting those decisions that cast the purported emancipation of the ECJ from classic inter-state politics, it neglects other ECJ's decisions that could well be considered as equally important in defining the Court's jurisprudence. Among others, Confédération nationale des producteurs de fruits et légumes v Council of the EEC, 14 December 1962 could also qualify as a 'landmark decison' as it gave a very restrictive reading of the individual standing, therefore granting Member States with specific privileges and rights within this new legal order.
9. It should be noted that these models are ideal-types. Thereby, they do not intend to mirror reality and they cannot be observed as such in social life. Rather, this table aims to provide a stylisation of specific cleavages over the possible political functions given to law and lawyers in the integration process in the early years of European construction. The relevance and respective weight of these three models then have to be measured empirically (as we try to do in the rest of the article).
10. The dualism famously identified by Joseph Weiler in the early 1980s between the normative supranationalism (the judicial level of European integration) and decisional supranationalism (the political push for integration) featured by 'a certain balance (and) cyclical interaction of the judicial-normative process with the political-decisional one' can therefore not be understood as a functional, necessary and a-historical process where law and politics form a 'zero-sum game' at the European level with the failure/decline of the two necessarily causing the success/taking over by the other. Cf J. Weiler, 'The Community system: the dual character of supranationalism', (1981) 1 Yearbook of European Law 268-306
11. On the early EC-implicated legal elites, see A. Cohen, 'Constitutionalism without Constitution; Transnational Elites between Political Mobilization and Legal Expertise (1940-1960)', (2007) 1 Law and Social Inquiry 109-135; Mikael Madsen, 'From Cold War Instrument to Supreme European Court: The European Court at the Crossroads of International and National Law and Politics', (2007) 1 Law and Social Inquiry 137-159; and A. Vauchez, 'How to Become a Transnational Elite. Lawyers' Politics at the Genesis of the European Communities (1950-1970)', in H. Petersen et al (eds), Paradoxes of European Legal Integration (Ashgate, 2008), 129-148.
12. For example, see J. White, 'Theory Guiding Practice: the Neofunctionalists and the Hallstein EEC Commission', (2003) 11 Journal of European Integration History 111-131.
13. E. Kantorowicz, 'Kinship Under the Impact of Scientific Jurisprudence', in M. Clagett et al (eds), Twelfth Century Europe and the Foundations of Modern Society (University of Wisconsin Press, 1961), 89-111.
14. A. Abbott, 'Linked Ecologies: State and Universities as Environments for Profession', (2005) 3 Sociological Theory 245-273.
15. From the mid-1980s, this intimate and privileged relationship between European integration and law has been more and more contested and criticised by other competing savoirs d'Etat (economics, public management). For an overview of this dispute, see C. Joerges, 'Integration Through De-legalization. An Irritated Heckler' (2007) Eurogov WP no 07-03 (available at http://www.mzes.uni-mannheim.de/projekte/typo3/site/fileadmin/wp/abstract/N-07-03.htm),andD.GeorgakakisandM.deLassale,'Wherehavealllawyersgone?',Workingpapers,RobertSchumanCenter,2008/08.
16. P. Bourdieu, Ce que parler veut dire (Fayard, 1982).
17. For a general presentation of the problématique, see A. Vauchez, 'The Force of a Weak Field. Law and Lawyers in the Government of the European Union (For a Renewed Research Agenda)', (2007) 2 International Political Sociology 128-147.
18. In this, I disagree with Alec Stone's reading of Van Gend en Loos as a juridical coup not so much for the objective he is aiming at - questioning transformations of law's legitimacy of a given political system (my general goal too) - but rather for the conception of social change the idea of 'coup' conveys. It is hardly possible to conceive of Courts - and of international Courts in particular - as unified and rational actors endowed with one clear and common idea of their objectives. A product of heterogeneous if not opposed conceptions of law and particularly of EC law, Van Gend en Loos is less the sort of inaugural and far-reaching judgment than a still ambiguous text to leaving open a variety of possible interpretations and futures (particularly as far as supremacy is concerned). We argue here that the decision's far-reaching 'content' has been produced all along the history of the European construction. See A. Stone, 'The Juridical Coup d'Etat and the Problem of Authority', (2007) 8 German Law Review 916-928. P. Mbongo and A. Vauchez (eds), Dans la fabrique du droit européen. Acteurs, scènes et publics de la Cour de justice des communautés européennes (Bruylant, 2009).
19. N. Heinich, La gloire de Van Gogh. Essai d'interprétation de l'anthropologie de l'admiration (Ed de Minuit, 1991).
20. E. Stein, 'The Making of a Transnational Constitution', (1981) 75 American Journal of International Law 12.
21. By 'judicial theory of Europe', I mean a systematic and rational understanding of EC polity articulated around the pivotal role of jurisdictions, and particularly of the ECJ.
22. Specialised law libraries (Cujas, ECJ, European University Institute) and national public libraries (French and Italian ones) have been the essential terrain of research. We have also dug into the Historical Archives of the European Communities (HAEC) in Florence, particularly the files from the Legal Service of the three EC executives (CEAB and BAC files) as well as from the European Parliament, which helped to partially circumvent the fact that the ECJ has still not deposited any archive.
23. The expression, borrowed from Dezalay and Garth, refers to notables from legal professions playing on both sides of political/legal fence, committed at one and the same time in legal engineering (as legal scholars or lawyers) and in political undertaking as established politicians. See Y. Dezalay and B. Garth, The Internationalization of Palace Wars: Lawyers, Economists and the Contest to Transform Latin American States (Chicago University Press, 2002).
24. See G. Sacriste and A. Vauchez, 'The Force of International Law. Lawyers' Diplomacy in the 1920s' International Scene', (2007) 32 Law and social inquiry 83-108.
25. J.-L. Roper 'De la nécessité d'une juridiction communautaire de droit privé', (1962) 10 Bulletin de l'Association des juristes européens 7-9. See also, C. Cheval, 'De l'opportunité de créer une Cour européenne de justice pour les litiges de droit privé', (1962) 36 Le droit européen 27-32.
26. Case 17/62, Confédération nationale des producteurs de fruits et legumes v Council of the EEC [1962] ECR 471. The decision was confirmed and precised in Case 25/62, Plaumann & Cie v EEC Commission [1963] ECR 95, and Case 1/64, Glucoseries Réunies v Commission [1964] ECR 413.
27. M. Lagrange, 'Submissions of the Advocate General. Confédérations nationales des producteurs . . . v. Council of the EEC', (1963) Common Market Law Reports 172.
28. J. Barman, 'Les Communautés européennes et le rapprochement des droits', (1960) 1 Revue internationale de droit comparé 57.
29. R. Lecourt and R.-M. Chevallier, 'Comment progresse le rapprochement des législations européennes?', (1965) Recueil Dalloz 147.
30. R. Lecourt and R.-M. Chevallier, 'Chances et malchances de l'harmonisation des législations européennes', (1963) Recueil Dalloz 275.
31. Cf J.-M. Palayret et al (eds), Visions, Votes and Vetoes. The Empty Chair Crisis and the Luxembourg Compromise Forty Years On (P. I. E. - Peter Lang, 2006).
32. See P. Ludlow, 'A Supranational Icarus: the Early Commission and the Search for an Independent Role', in A. Varsori (ed), Inside the European Community: Actors and Policies in the European Integration 1957-1972 (Nomos, 2006).
33. See K. Alter, Establishing the Supremacy of European Law (Oxford University Press, 2001).
34. B. Davies, 'Meek Acceptance? The West German Ministeries' Reaction to the Van Gend en Loos and Costa decisions', (2008) 2 Journal of European Integration History 57-76.
35. On these mobilisations, see K. Alter, 'Chapter 4: Jurist Advocacy Movements in Europe: The Role of Euro-Law Associations in European Integration (1953-1975)', in idem, The European Court's Political Power: Essays on the Influence of the European Court of Justice on European Politics (Oxford University Press, 2009), 63-91.
36. As of 1961, the Legal Service had a Centre de documentation scrutinising the evolution of national jurisprudences on EC law: 'Document de travail interne. Analyse des décisions nationales rendues par les juridictions et les autorités administratives sur le droit des Communautés européennes', 1962, HAEU/COM/BAC.
37. L.-E. Pettiti, 'Nouvelles diverses sur les travaux de l'Association', (1962) 10 Bulletin de l'Association des juristes européens 29.
38. As a matter of fact, out of the first 18 preliminary rulings notified to the Court during the first six years of the Rome treaties, 15 were from Dutch tribunals, one from Luxemburg, one from Germany and one from Italy.
39. They were followed some months later by F. Salomonson, secretary of the Dutch FIDE working group who successfully asked a Dutch administrative court for a preliminary ruling before the ECJ on the same Art 12. Cf Case 73/63, NV Int Crediet 'Rotterdam' v Ministry of Agriculture [1963] ECR 3.
40. Hans Stibbe's Amsterdam law firm which he had himself inherited from his father would become, after several fusions, one of Europe's biggest law firms in the field.
41. On this see M. Rasmussen, 'The Origin of a Legal Revolution - The Early History of the European Court of Justice', (2008) 4 Journal of European Integration History 77-99.
42. Michel Gaudet, 'Note à MM. Les membres de la Commission. Objets: observations de la Commission devant la Cour de justice au sujet des demandes préjudicielles de la "Tariefcomissie" néerlandaise', mimeo, 1963, 21 pages. I would like to thank Bruno de Witte who was so kind as to lend me his own copy of this precious albeit still unpublished document.
43. R.-M. Chevallier, 'Commentaire d'arrêt 2 et 3/62 de la CJCE', 19-22 January 1963, Gazette du Palais, at 1.
44. Antonio Trabucchi, 'Note à MM. Les juges. Affaire 26/62 Tariefcommissie', in Giuseppe Perini, 'Alberto Trabucchi giurista europeo. Alle radici del diritto in Europa: una testimonianza inedito', (2008) 1 Quaderni della Rivista di diritto civile 174-176.
45. Interview (conducted together with Morten Rasmussen) with Paolo Gori, former référendaire of Antonio Trabucchi, Prato (Italy), 20 March 2008. See also M. Rasmussen, 'The Origin of a Legal Revolution', op cit n 39 supra.
46. See E. Stein, 'The Making of a Transnational Constitution', op cit n 18 supra.
47. Citations all come from the judgment as it is published at (1963) Common Market Law Reports 127-132.
48. See J. Weiler, Rewriting Van Gend en Loos: Towards a Normative Theory of ECJ Hermeneutics', in Ola Wiklund (ed), Judicial Discretion in European Perspective (Kluwer Law International, 2003), 151-163.
49. Cour de justice des communautés européennes (1963) Recueil de la jurisprudence de la Cour, Luxembourg: Publications officielles des CE 21.
50. (1963) Common Market Law Reports 13.
51. Otto Riese, Ansprache von Herrn Professor O. Riese anlasslich seiner Verabschiedung am 6 February 1963', in HAEU/CEAB 2/1137.
52. M. Gaudet, 'Incidences des Communautés européennes sur le droit interne des Etats membres', (1963) Annales de la Faculté de droit de Liège 24.
53. M. Lagrange, 'L'organisation, le fonctionnement et le rôle de la Cour de justice des communautés européennes', (1963) 13-14 Bulletin de l'Association des juristes européens 13.
54. R. Lecourt, 'L'Europe dans le prétoire', Le Monde, 23 February 1963, at 1.
55. A. Trabucchi, 'Un nuovo diritto', (1963) IX Rivista di diritto civile 259.
56. N. Catalano, 'L'inserimento diretto delle disposizioni contenute nel Trattato istitutivo della Comunità economica europea negli ordinamenti giuridici degli Stati membri', (1963) Foro padano 32.
57. P. Gori, 'Una pietra miliare nell'affermazione del diritto europeo', (1963) Foro italiano 10.
58. A. Donner, 'National Law and the Case Law of the Court of Justice of the European Community', (1963) I Common Market Law Review 13.
59. L. F. D. Ter Kuile, 'Le problème des dispositions directement applicables des traités internationaux et son application aux traités instituant les communautés', in Fédération internationale pour le droit européen, Deuxième colloque international de droit européen: La Haye 1963 (N. V. Uitgeversmij, 1966).
60. I identified only one public dissenting opinion to this interpretative activism coming from ECJ référendaire Sergio Neri, presumably echoing the viewpoint of his judge Rino Rossi, who denied the view, held by many of ECJ paladins (see hereafter), that there is any element in the decision enabling supremacy of EC law to be seen as a logical consequence of Van Gend en Loos: 'While the Court has endorsed the Dutch theory of self-executing of specific international norms, it is not possible to affirm that it has accepted supremacy', see S. Neri, 'Sulla natura giuridica delle Comunità europee', (1964) Rivista di diritto internazionale 235.
61. To our knowledge, three out of the seven ECJ judges (Louis Delvaux, Rino Rossi, Charles Léon Hammes) and one out the two Advocate Generals (Karl Roemer) did not participate in this ex-post interpretative activism and kept silent.
62. A. Trabucchi, 'Un nuovo diritto', op cit n 53 supra.
63. While finishing a PhD precisely on ECJ preliminary rulings, Roger-Michel Chevallier, Robert Lecourt's référendaire, was holding a regular Euro-law chronicle in the French Gazette du Palais, and, together with the Belgian Gérard Rasquin (Hammes's référendaire), wrote numerous doctrinal articles on the Court's procedures and case-law. Paolo Gori, Alberto Trabucchi's référendaire, held a PhD in international law from the University of Florence and Harvard Law School, and Sergio Neri, another Italian référendaire who also held a PhD in international law, were respectively commenting on ECJ decisions for the Foro italiano and the Foro padano. One could add former Judge Nicola Catalano to this group, for he had just left the Court and had become one of the most active commentators of the Court's decisions in major Italian, French and Belgian law journals.
64. Two months after the decision, in late April 1963, no fewer than 13 members of the Court (five judges out of nine, eight référendaires out of nine) took part in the important conference held at the Institut fur das Recht der Europeaische Gemeinschaften in Cologne on Ten years of ECJ jurisprudence.
65. Presumably as a tribute to his achievement in his Van Gend en Loos test-case, L. F. D. Ter Kuile represented the Dutch section of FIDE in that debate.
66. See Antonin Cohen, 'Scarlet Robes, Dark Suits: The Social Recruitment of the European Court of Justice', European University Institute, Working Paper RSCAS 2008/ 35.
67. P. Gori, 'Una pietra miliare', op cit n 55 supra, at 17.
68. N. Catalano, 'L'inserimento diretto', op cit n 54 supra, at 36.
69. A. Trabucchi, 'Un nuovo diritto', op cit n 53 supra.
70. P. Gori, 'Una pietra miliare', op cit n 55 supra, at 18, emphasis added.
71. A. Donner, 'National Law', op cit n 56 supra.
72. Donner quoted in W. Feld, The Court of the European Communities: New Dimensions in International Adjudication (Martinus Nijhoff, 1964), 116.
73. M. Gaudet, 'Incidences des Communautés européennes sur le droit interne des Etats membres', (1963) Annales de la Faculté de droit de Liège 5-26, original emphasis.
74. R. Lecourt, 'L'unification du droit européen est aussi un moyen de construire l'Europe', (1963) France-Forum 31.
75. 'The fact that articles 169 and 170 of the EEC treaty enable the Commission and the member states to bring before the court a state which has not fulfilled its obligations does not deprive individuals of the right to plead the same obligations, should the occasion arise, before a national court' (Van Gend en Loos in (1963) Common Market Law Review 13).
76. Giangaleazzo Stendardi only participated to the case before the Italian Constitutional Court but suggested the recourse to the ECJ. See G. Stendardi, 'Problemi in materia di leggi di legittimità di espropriazione d'impresa', (1962) 5 Foro padano 52-60.
77. Roughly 22 pounds sterling at the time: (1964) Common Market Law Review 427.
78. F. Costa, 'Riforme legislative urgenti per una più efficace tutela giurisdizionale del cittadino nella procedura penale', in Congresso nazionale giuridico forense, Congresso nazionale giuridico forense: Milan 13-18 settembre 1965 (Giuffrè, 1966), 735.
79. G. Stendardi, I rapporti tra gli ordinamenti giuridici italiani e le Comunità europee (Giuffrè, 1958), 18.
80. In point of fact, he urged each European citizen to 'ask himself: what have I done, what am I doing for the European norms to be implemented?', in ibid, at 17.
81. The Partito liberale italiano a small right-wing party closed to corporate interests had gained an unprecedented momentum at the time in Milan (around 20% in 1963-1964 elections) actively campaigning against the politics of the centre-left-wing government and, particularly, its nationalisation policies. Professor Giangaleazzo Stendardi was on the party's list at the municipal elections in Milan in 1963 and eventually entered the municipal council in 1969. See M. Emanuelli, Accade a Milano 1945-2002 (Greco e Greco, 2002).
82. G. Stendardi, op cit n 74 supra, at 60.
83. See B. Davies, 'Meek Acceptance?', op cit n 32 supra.
84. W. Hallstein, 'La Communauté européenne, nouvel ordre juridique', (1964) 27 Les documents de la Communauté européenne 5.
85. Quoted in M. Lagrange, 'Conclusions de l'avocat général', (1964) Recueil de la jurisprudence de la Cour 1179.
86. In between the two decisions, the composition of the Court had undergone only one change with the, to our knowledge, still unexplained resignation of the German judge Otto Riese, Adenauer's nephew, only one day after the publication of the decision Van Gend and Loos (but after he had taken part to the judicial deliberations). He was replaced by Walter Strauss, former Minister of Justice in Adenauer's government.
87. ECJ, 1964 1141
88. G. Stendardi, Il soggetto privato nell'ordinamento giuridico comunitario (Giuffrè, 1967), 109.
89. In his commentary of the case, Monaco's référendaires, Paolo Gori seemed to worry about the fact that 'by limiting the possibility for individuals to claim before national judges violations to EC law', the decision 'had the effect of limiting, at least in practice, the scope of the principle of supremacy of EC law', in P. Gori, 'La preminenza del diritto delle Comunità europee sul diritto interno degli Stati membri', (1964) Giurisprudenza italiana 1077.
90. J. Weiler, 'The Community system: the dual character of supranationalism', (1981) 1 Yearbook of European Law 301.
91. P. Gori, 'La preminenza del diritto', op cit n 89 supra.
92. A. de Vreese, 'Droit communautaire et droit national', (1965) 14 Cahiers de Bruges 399.
93. J.-V. Louis, 'Compte-rendu', (1965) 1 Cahiers du droit européen 74.
94. Fernand Dehousse was so willing to give political importance to the legal issue of the relationships between European treaties and national law that he had himself written his doctoral thesis on the subject in the mid-1930s. See F. Dehousse, La ratification des traités. Essai sur les rapports des traités et du droit interne (Sirey, 1935).
95. F. Dehousse, Rapport fait au nom de la commission juridique sur la primauté du droit communautaire (Parlement européen, 1965), 21.
96. W. Hallstein, 'La Communauté européenne, nouvel ordre juridique', (1964) 27 Les documents de la Communauté européenne 11, at p 8.
97. M. Schonwald, 'Walter Hallstein et les institutions des Communautés européennes', in M.-T. Bitsch (ed), Le couple franco-allemand et les institutions européennes (Bruylant, 2001), 151-168.
98. W. Hallstein, 'La Communauté européenne', op cit n 96 supra, at 8-10.
99. W. Hallstein, 'La Communauté européenne', op cit n 96 supra, at 10- 11.
100. E. Stein, 'The Making of a Transnational Constitution', op cit n 18 supra.
101. Some cases are thoroughly documented in Karen Alter, Establishing the Supremacy of European Law, op cit n 32 supra.
102. W. Hallstein, in Parlement européen, Débats. Compte rendu in extenso des séances, session 1964-1965, séance du 17 juin 1965 (Parlement européen, 1965), 218.
103. 103 W. Sassen, in ibid, at 223.
104. 104 The role of Michel Gaudet, a member of the Conseil d'État, who directed the Legal Service of the European executive bodies for 15 years (1952-1967) still needs to be analysed in detail: his role was central in the Commission (Paul-Henri Spaak asked Gaudet to help him represent the High Authority during the negotiations of the Treaty of Rome), in the FIDE as well as in the production of EC law doctrine. His position at the heart of the executive bodies had made him an interlocutor, even a godfather of the academic ventures in the field of European law. He was for instance invited to write the inaugural article of the Anglo-Dutch journal Common Market Law Review (1963) and of the Belgian European law journal Cahiers de droit européen (1965), while being at the same time a member of the Editorial board of the French journal Revue trimestrielle de droit européen since its creation in January 1965.
105. N. Elias, What is sociology? (Hutchinson, 1978), 86.
106. Sassen, op cit n 103 supra, at 221.
107. J. Kaiser, 'Das Europarecht in der Krise der Gemeinschaften', (1966) 1 Europarecht 4-24.
108. It must be noted that the first book engaging in a reflection on the role of the European Court in a functionalist perspective is posterior. S. Scheingold, The Rule of Law in European Integration (Yale University Press, 1965).
109. R. Lecourt, 'Le rôle du droit dans l'unification européenne', (1963) Bulletin de l'Association des juristes européens 22.
110. On this, see A. Vauchez and G. Sacriste, 'The Force of International Law', op cit n 22 supra.
111. Cour de justice des communautés européennes (1965) Rencontre des membres de la Cour de justice des communautés européennes avec des hauts magistrats des Etats membres. Luxembourg, les 10 et 11 juin 1965, unedited, Library of ECJ 42-45.
112. N. Catalano, 'Portata dei trattati istitutivi delle Comunità europee e limiti dei poteri sovrani degli Stati membri', (1964) Giurisprudenza italiana 155.
113. R. Dehousse, in op cit n 102 supra, at 2.
114. W. Hallstein, in op cit n 102 supra, at 218 and 220.
115. Ibid, at 231.
116. Ibid, at 243.
117. R. Lecourt, 'Le rôle du droit dans l'unification européenne', op cit n 109 supra, at 22.