Cichowski/Börzel 3
1. EU Law: between politics and the public
The contributors of this volume take the dynamic interaction between law, politics and society as
a starting point to think critically about recent developments and future innovations in European
integration and EU studies. The objectives of the volume are threefold. First, to provide an
overview of key events of 2000 through 2002 in the European Union, while illuminating how
these institutional (formal legal) developments are linked to an ongoing interaction between law,
politics and society. We emphasize that this dynamic is not distinctive, but instead is a common
trajectory characterizing the historical development of the Community. For example, in the
1950s and 1960s neo-functional theorists brought to the forefront of regional integration studies
the interaction between transnational actors (in particular, business interests), supranational
organizations and expanding supranational law (e.g. Haas 1958). Integration would develop from
a functional demand for greater clarity and scope of EU law: a demand made by those who were
either hindered or empowered by this new supranational project. Thus even at this early stage of
Community building, EU policy development was characterized by dynamic interactions
between not only powerful member state governments, but also EU organizations who were
increasingly activated and lobbied by a growing net of transnational interests.
Further, in the 1970s and 1980s when member state governments turned their focus
homeward and the Community experienced a general slowing in EU legislative outputs, the
Convention