Daniel Wincott

At least since Adam Smith advocates of 'free' markets have recognised that, if it is to produce optimal outcomes, exchange based on enlightened self interest depends on a framework of law. Yet European law and political economy are too rarely considered together, despite the considerable, and often sophisticated, efforts of scholars to make sense of the creation of each of these crucial aspects of European integration. During the 1990s important political analyses focused on European law, as a dependent variable. Yet, having 'explained' how European law was 'conjured', relatively little explicit attention has yet been given to its impact on Europe's political economy. Political science seems to have moved rapidly from wholly ignoring law, to taking it for granted as a factor making 'Europe' cohere. Moreover, as Europe moves on, and new 'modes of governance' are increasing defined through contrasts with the 'classic' law based Community method, there is a danger that these comparisons will overly harden - perhaps even reify - the latter's image as system based on robust and binding law. Daniel Wincott argues that ultimately, fate trumps choice and chance: economic processes ('globalisation'?) determined Europe's liberal market. Re-analysis shows that European law had developed to the point of providing a fairly plausible general means of regulating exchange in a pan-European market only from the late 1970s. From the point of view of the politicians that created in the internal market, this 'system' was a gift that they had not chosen to create - in a sense they chanced upon this foundation for the project they then 'chose' to construct. Yet, even at this stage, European law was not the robust and uniform system on which an effective internal market might rely (arguably it has never had these characteristics). Core member states centrally involved in all major European projects of the time - particularly France - had yet to accept in principle, never mind implement in practice fundamental aspects of European law. It is tempting to account for European integration as a product of globalisation - in terms of general and overarching economic changes. Yet close attention to contingencies and the strategies of Europeans suggests that we should consider another possibility. No doubt the chances taken and choices made in the European Union were influenced by its context, but we should leave open the possibility that Europe helped to generate the wider process of economic liberalisation.

Daniel Wincott is Senior Lecturer in Political Science and International Studies at the University of Birmingham and Managing Editor of the Journal of Common Market Studies. He has published widely on the politics of European law, integration theory, Europe's social dimension as well as comparative public policy and welfare state theory. He holds undergraduate and masters degrees from the University of Manchester and a PhD from the London School of Economics. He has worked at the Universities of Leicester and (as Jean Monnet Chair in Law and Politics) Warwick, and has held Visiting Fellowships at the Australian National University.