Teaching the Political Context of EC Law

• Date: 01 June 1999
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/1468-0386.00072
• Author: Carol Harlow
• Published date: 01 June 1999

Review Essays

Teaching the Political Context

of EC Law

Carol Harlow*

Review Essay: The Macmillan European Union Series (Macmillan)—D. Dinan, Ever

Closer Union? An Introduction to the European Community (1994), J. Greenwood,

Representing Interests in the European Union (1997), F. Hayes-Renshaw and H.

Wallace, The Council of Ministers (1997), S. Hix and C. Lord, Political Parties in the

European Union (1997), N. Nugent, The Government and Politics of the European

Union (1994), R. Dehousse, The European Court of Justice: The Politics of Judicial

Integration (1998); P. Craig and G. de Burca, EC Law, Text, Cases, & Materials, 2nd

edition (Clarendon 1988); D. Chalmers and E. Szyszczak, European Union Law.

Volume One. Law and EU Government (Dartmouth 1988).

There is nothing new in the observation that the teaching of EC law has, at least until

recently, largely been confined to a study of the legal rules. EC public law tends to

receive a similar treatment. It focuses narrowly on law made by the Court, giving the

impression that administrative law consists of a number of judge-made general

principles, albeit with increasing recognition that EC legislation is also an important

source of law

1

. Constitutional law tends towards the institutional. Good accounts of

the institutional structure of the Community certainly exist, but these again tend to be

framed in terms of legal power: what the Commission can do under EC Article 169 or

the stages through which legislation must pass under co-decision and co-operation

procedure respectively

2

. How the Commission actually uses its Article 169 powers

3

or

how the Parliament and the Council collaborate to make the complex lawmaking

procedures function

4

is seen as the province of political scientists. Moreover, institu-

European Law Journal, Vol. 5, No. 2, June 1999, pp. 127–134

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

and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA

*Carol Harlow, Professor of Public Law, London School of Economics.

1

J. Schwarze, ‘Developing Principles of European Administrative Law’ [1993] PL 229; J. Schwarze,

‘Sources of European Administrative Law’, in S. Martin (ed) The Construction of Europe, Essays in

Honour of Emile Noel (Kluwer 1994).

2

T.C. Hartley, The Foundations of European Community Law (Clarendon, 4th edition, 1998); J. Shaw, Law

of the European Union (Macmillan, 2nd edition, 1996).

3

Snyder, ‘The Effectiveness of EC Law: Institutions, Processes, Tools and Techniques’ (1993) 56 MLR 19.

4

Boyron, ‘Maastricht and the codecision procedure: a success story’ (1996) 45 ICLQ 293. Boyron ‘The

Codecision Procedure: Rethinking the Constitutional Fundamentals’ and Westlake, ‘‘The Style and the

Machinery: The Role of the European Parliament in the EU’s Legislative Processes’, both in P. Craig and

C. Harlow (eds) Lawmaking in the European Union (Kluwer 1998).