Der Philosoph als wahrer Rechtslehrer

• Author: Christian Joerges
• Date: 01 June 1999
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/1468-0386.00075
• Published date: 01 June 1999

Der Philosoph als wahrer Rechtslehrer*

Christian Joerges

Giandomenico Majone, Regulating Europe, with contributions by P. Baake, R. Baldwin,

L. Cases, F. Demarigny , M. Everson, L. Laudati, O. Perschau, A. Weale and the

editorial assistance of Claire Tame, (Routledge 1996).

Here is one of the rare examples of a learned best-seller, distributed globally in

remarkable numbers, attracting attention not just from political scientists but also

amongst legal scholars and the entire community of integration experts, academics as

well as policy makers, cited respectfully by all of them. So why review? Does not

reflecting about the undisputed intellectual merits of Majone’s work and the practical

needs and problems to which it responds simply amount to carrying coals to

Newcastle? Hardly so. Majone’s success is more complex and in part paradoxical. One,

none too mysterious reason, however, for the favourable reactions in so many quarters

can be easily identified. This book is of exceptional clarity, stringently guiding the

reader through complex intellectual territory, satisfying the experts in the fields under

scrutiny, giving direction to the beginner, and, most importantly, persuading through

arguing. The body of thought it builds up does not fit comfortably into established

schools of thinking and politicised dichotomies. The book remains challenging

precisely because of these qualities.

The following remarks will focus on concerns which may seem specifically law-

orientated or even reflective of some parochial disciplinary defence strategy. But I

hope to demonstrate that my law-related interests in Majone’s work address specific

properties and transdisciplinary merits in his argument, and that, by the same token,

they point to dilemmas or unresolved problems which lawyers must not, and political

scientists should not, take lightly.

I

When Majone took over the chair for Public Policy at the European University

Institute back in 1988, he had mastered, both at Yale and Harvard, the broad and

sophisticated debate on regulatory policies which was dominated, even in political

science, by paradigms of economic descent. That debate had already infiltrated into

academic and policy discourses in Europe but had not yet made too great an

impression within integration studies—to lawyers at least, the term ‘regulation’ was

primarily familiar as the alternative, foreseen by Article 189, to a directive. And yet,

the European Community was about to ‘complete’ its Internal Market and the

influence this project exerted, both at European level and within many Member States,

proved timely, also having its own effect upon national efforts to face the apparent

European Law Journal, Vol. 5, No. 2, June 1999, pp. 147–153

© Blackwell Publishers Ltd. 1999, 108 Cowley Road, Oxford OX4 1JF, UK

and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA

* ‘The Philosopher as true teacher of law’ - this was Kant’s descrption of a scholar who participates in

public debate.