EU Law Stories: Contextual and Critical Histories of
European Jurisprudence
by Fernanda Nicola (Editor)
Through an interdisciplinary analysis of the rulings
of the Court of Justice of the European Union, this book offers 'thick'
descriptions, contextual histories and critical narratives engaging with
leading or minor personalities involved behind the scenes of each case. The
contributions depart from the notion that EU law and its history should be
narrated in a linear and incremental way to show instead that law evolves in a
contingent and not determinate manner. The book shows that the effects of
judge-made law remain relatively indeterminate and each case can be retold
through different contextual narratives, and shows the commitment of the
European legal elites to the experience of legal reasoning. The idea to cluster
the stories around prominent cases is not to be fully comprehensive, but to
re-focus the scholarship and teaching of EU law by moving beyond the black
letter and unravel the lawyering techniques to achieve policy results.
