Violeta Moreno-Lax talks to us about her new edited volume, Research Handbook on General Principles in EU Law: Constructing Legal Orders in Europe published by Edward Elgar. It is co-edited by Katja Ziegler and Paivi Neuvonen.
This Research Handbook offers a comprehensive study of existing and emerging general principles of EU law by scholars from a wide range of expertise in EU law, international law, legal theory and different areas of substantive law. It explores the theory, content, role and function of general principles in EU law to better understand general principles as a mechanism for the substantive openness of the EU legal order as well as for cross-fertilization and coherence of legal orders. Their potential as a tool to manage the interaction of legal regimes is a particular focal point and makes this Handbook a key addition to the literature on the subject.
My co-editors and I won Jean Monnet project funding alongside a British Academy/Leverhulme small research grant to study the role and significance of general principles of EU law and, most importantly, in EU law. The appeal of general principles lies in their capacity to provide a systematic framework according to which to develop a legal order. But there are plenty of open questions about their regime-making properties, their claim to supremacy and coherence, as well as their origin and authority within constitutional(ised) legal orders. The project and the book aim to navigate the many contexts in which general principles bear significance for and in EU law and provides a critical account of their legal nature and the several functions they assume in an array of legal and policy fields, including in the relationship between EU law and international law.
This innovative Research Handbook explores judicial, scholarly, and theoretical approaches to general principles in the EU legal order against the backdrop of considerable uncertainty about the concept. It does so by analysing both a diverse range of general principles in discrete areas of EU law (‘zooming in’) and external, wider perspectives on the notion of a general principle of law from international law, comparative law, and legal theory (‘zooming out’).
Rather than arguing for a single closed definition of what a general principle of law in the EU legal order must look like, this Research Handbook identifies conceptual, theoretical, and legal parameters within which the doctrine of general principles can be meaningfully discussed and contested in EU law. The different analytical layers built into this Research Handbook shed light on whether general principles are defined by the different contexts in which they apply; whether general principles are in practice leading to more coherence between different areas of EU law; and what challenges they create for the EU legal order. Chapters thus contribute to a more refined methodological and doctrinal understanding of general principles in the EU legal order.
Opening up new spaces to critically reflect on the concept, role, significance, and limitations of general principles, the Research Handbook on General Principles in EU Law will be a key resource for scholars and students of European law, politics, and theory of integration and internationalisation.