Preface

Summary

This book represents an investigation into the ethical terrain of the European Union. In the course of its enquiry, it reveals how the practice of the institutions, through law and policy, through adjudication and regulation, through rhetoric and action, has led to the adoption of a number of values, each of which possesses indeterminate substance and is highly ambiguous. It argues that an institutional ethos, composed in part by a philosophy of EU law, has developed that lacks any coherence and, ultimately, clear moral purpose. Most importantly, there has been a failure to take ‘justice’ seriously as a central, defining and governing theme. The EU's capacity to respond to crises and provide a focal point for vital decisions that will affect the lives of countless peoples inside and outside its domain is therefore diminished.

But my aim in this assessment is not simply to dismiss the Union as an ‘unjust institution’ or to argue that the evident failings make it worthy of dismantlement. Rather, the analysis is intended as a prelude to considering how change might be effected so as to make the EU more disposed to justice. Understanding the nature of the problem is the first step on this route. Believing that the trajectories of the ethos and the philosophy of law do not have to remain fixed, that they can be re-directed, is the second.