Towards a history of European law

-Lecture by Professor Frank Schorkopf

Discussant Karin van Leeuwen, Assistant Professor, University of Amsterdam

The historic argument serves European integration. It serves because „history“ justifies European integration, gives reason for new steps of integration and fosters legitimacy. It is time for legal scholars - especially their European law branch - to do more research on the legal history of European integration. The archives in the European Union and its Member States treasure many relevant documents unconsidered yet. A source-based approach would allow a fresh sight on the established topics of European Union law and its science. Thereby we not only, as the “New Legal Historians” undertake, challenge and finally falsify the leading narrative of “Integration through law”. But we might also discover new insights into the dead ends of integration and the mutual entanglement of the telos of integration and the practical application of European law.