Page:ELO 1(1), 6–25. European public law after empires.pdf/1

European Law Open (2022), 1, 6–25 doi:10.1017/elo.2021.8 CORE ANALYSIS

Signe Rehling Larsen


 * Abstract

1. The founding myth of EU law

Empire and decolonisation are conspicuous mostly for their absence in the academic study as well as the public debate over the origins and nature of European integration and European Union (EU) law. The end of empire and decolonisation are among the most significant legal and political developments of the twentieth century, yet lawyers, political scientists as well as historians who study EU law and European integration have paid surprisingly little attention to the question of the end of empire and the broader transformation of the European states that followed.

For example, one of the most prominent political scientists writing on European integration, Andrew Moravcsik, describes empire and decolonisation – almost in passing together with other geopolitical interests – as of secondary relevance for the study of European integration.