Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Contributors
- Preface
- Abbreviations
- Table of cases
- Introduction
- Part I European economic and social constitutionalism between norms and practices
- 1 Re-embedding economic and social constitutionalism
- 2 Reconciling market with Social Europe? The EU under the Lisbon Treaty
- 3 Constitutionalism between normative frameworks and the socio-legal frameworks of societies
- 4 Observations on economic governance and the search for a European economic constitution
- Part II Emanations of tensions between economic and social integration
- Part III Studying cases of possible tensions
- Bibliography
- Index
- References
3 - Constitutionalism between normative frameworks and the socio-legal frameworks of societies
from Part I - European economic and social constitutionalism between norms and practices
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 July 2011
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Contributors
- Preface
- Abbreviations
- Table of cases
- Introduction
- Part I European economic and social constitutionalism between norms and practices
- 1 Re-embedding economic and social constitutionalism
- 2 Reconciling market with Social Europe? The EU under the Lisbon Treaty
- 3 Constitutionalism between normative frameworks and the socio-legal frameworks of societies
- 4 Observations on economic governance and the search for a European economic constitution
- Part II Emanations of tensions between economic and social integration
- Part III Studying cases of possible tensions
- Bibliography
- Index
- References
Summary
Introduction
Writing in 2002, Fritz Scharpf warned: ‘the only thing that stands between the Scandinavian welfare state and the market is not a vote in the Council of Ministers or in the European Parliament, but merely the initiation of . . . legal action by potential private competitors before a national court that is then referred to the European Court of Justice for a preliminary opinion. In other words, it may happen one day’. The day appeared to come with the referral of two cases to the Court of Justice of the European Union (ECJ) in 2005: Laval and Viking. At issue in each case was whether industrial actions by unions to force firms to abide by nationally negotiated collective agreements constituted an infringement of free movement of services. Coming in the wake of contentious battles over the Services Directive and in ongoing political negotiations leading up to Lisbon, the cases attracted a great deal of attention as to how the Court would reconcile these competing economic and social demands. Moreover, given that the cases involved employers based in old Member States (Sweden and Finland) seeking to employ workers from new Member States (Latvia and Estonia), the cases also exacerbated ongoing concerns that eastward enlargement would spur a race-to-the-bottom in wages and social protections. With the ECJ ultimately ruling in favour of the employers the cases appeared to vindicate concerns raised by Scharpf and others that direct interventions by the courts pose the most significant threat to existing national socio-legal frameworks.
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- Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2011
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