The European Union has, in recent years, taken major strides towards transforming the field of civil justice in Europe. Under the guise of promoting "judicial cooperation in civil matters" the EU has extended its reach into the fields of civil procedure and private international law, in surprising and sometimes dramatic ways. My research, based largely on interviews with persons involved in these developments, sets out to explain how and why these changes have occurred. The dominant theories about European integration are inadequate to explain the actions and attitudes of the legal experts who are behind the changes taking place at the EU level. My paper assesses the inadequacies of the dominant theoretical accounts, and strives towards a more convincing explanation of the role of legal elites in transnational governance.

Prof. Helen Hartnell is Professor of Law at the Golden Gate University San Francisco.

Poster