Comparative legal studies and European integration: Looking at the origins of the debate

Abstract

The goal of this paper is to analyse the influence of the American comparative lawyers' studies on the language of the European integration. As recent research in the legal field has demonstrated, European studies "should pay more attention to the legal discourse that sustains the conceptions of law and legal politics underlying European law" (H. Schepel-R. Wesseling 1997). In the writing of Europe, in fact, a very important role was played by legal scholars, especially by the American ones, who contributed in providing a common vocabulary to the language of the European integration.

Translated abstract

El objetivo de este estudio es analizar la influencia de los comparatistas estadounidenses sobre el lenguaje de la integración europea. Como recientes investigaciones han demostrado, los estudios europeos "should pay more attention to the legal discourse that sustains the conceptions of law and legal politics underlying European law" (H. Schepel-R. Wesseling 1997). En la construcción de la Europa, en efecto, un rol muy importante fue jugado por los juristas, especialmente por juristas estatunidenses, que contribuyeron a la creación del lenguaje de la integración europea.