24 February 2011 | CIL-EU Centre Joint Seminar

Producing, constructing and implementing law: The EU integration experience

Introduction

States deciding to go beyond mere cooperation and to achieve integration have to learn that planning a common task implies that they each accept no longer to decide unilaterally on the measures required to realise their shared goal. Decisions have to be taken in common, together with other member states, either directly or through the “organisation” – whatever its specific nature or appellation.

Integration obviously depends on objective factors such as economic interdependence and benefits and political rationale and will. But the European Union experience shows that law and the legal process could also help facilitate and drive integration. The experience and practice of the EU clearly demonstrate the importance that law and legal practices can have on integration. Specific “legislative” instruments like the so-called directives of the EU are generally much more efficient than usual techniques, especially in fields where interventions of the States concerned remain essential. “Centralisation” of legal interpretation through a mechanism like the European Court of Justice (ECJ) can be helpful in preventing common rules from being “re-nationalised”. If need be, effective compliance from member states should be secured by enforcement mechanisms – and the role of ECJ is essential in such a context. The ECJ in playing its role in European integration of course must also consider national and international law. In moving to and from from these different domains, the role of the ECJ in integration clearly shows not only that integration is an evolutionary process, but also the momentum achieved could go far beyond what was originally contemplated and agreed on.

About the Speaker

Joe Verhoeven is professor at the University Panthéon-Assas (Paris II) and Director of the Institut des Hautes Etudes Internationales; he is also Secretary General of the Institute of International Law since 2003 (Institut de Droit International). A professor of International Law, Prof Verhoeven had taught at the Catholic University of Louvain, and has been on various visiting scholarships and fellowships to several American universities, including Stanford School of Law. Prof Verhoeven is on the editorial boards of several legal periodicals and has also published extensively in many journals and periodicals. His monographs and publications range from topics on international public law, to European Community law. He has also been Ad hoc Judge to the International Court of Justice in a case on armed activities in Congo, and also member of the Permanent Court of Arbitration and expert at the Centre for Conflict Prevention in the Organization for Security Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).