A Brief History of Europe

Abstract

Europe, it seems, was invented in 1957. European law was invented at the same time. It was also invented as an ahistorical idea. As I suggested in the previous chapter, the attempt to deny its history is one of the defining characteristic of our new Europe. European lawyers, it again seems, are more than happy to support this particular mythology. The major texts on European law are almost brazenly ahistorical. Wyatt and Dashwood’s European Community Law, for example, relinquishes precisely 16 pages out of a total of 690 to the consideration of history (Wyatt 8c Dashwood, 1993). Weatherill and Beaumont’s EC Law provides 35 pages of historical commentary out of 846 (Weatherill & Beaumont, 1993). The bigger and more ambitious the tome, the more striking the absence. The most recent contribution to the burgeoning market, Craig & de Burca’s EC Law: Texts, Cases & Materials, is a magisterial 1160 pages in length. Both the ‘history’ and the ‘ideas’ of Europe are covered between pages 2 and 8 (Craig 8c de Burca, 1995). The historical context of European law is not taken very seriously at all. It would be easy to suggest that this is a mistake.