Legal advisers working in the institutions of the European Union exercise significant power, but very little is known about their work. Notwithstanding the handful of cases where legal matters find their way into the news, legal advice remains invisible in EU policy-making. For more than ten years Päivi Leino-Sandberg was a part of the invisible community of EU legal advisers, and participated in the exercise of their power. In this book, she shares her insights about how law and lawyers work in the EU institutions, and what their role and impact is on EU decisions from within the decision-making structure. She draws on interviews with over sixty EU lawyers and policymakers: legal experts who interpret the Treaties within the Institutions, draft legislation and defend the Institutions before the EU Court. Telling the true stories behind key negotiations, this book explores the interplay and tensions between legal requirements and political ambitions.
Information on the book launch will be updated soon.
The Politics of Legal Expertise in EU Policy-Making is can be pre-ordered now with a 20% discount at www.cambridge.org/9781108830058. Enter the code LEINO21 at the checkout.
päivi Leino-Sandberg is Professor of Transnational European Law, University of Helsinki, and the Director of its Master's Programme in Global Governance Law. She is Deputy Director of the Erik Castrén Institute of International Law and Human Rights where she leads several research projects relating to the use of legal expertise in EU law-making, transparency and participation. The book builds on research conducted as part of the project 'The Necessary Evil - On Law, Power and Institutional Politics in the European Union'. Leino-Sandberg specializes in EU institutional and constitutional law, and has published in the areas of European administrative law, Economic and Monetary Union and EU external relations.