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Constructing and Legitimating: Transnational Jurist Networks and the Making of a Constitutional Practice of European Law, 1950–70

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 June 2012

ALEXANDRE BERNIER
ALEXANDRE BERNIER*
Affiliation:
The SAXO-Institute, The History section, Copenhagen University, Njalsgade 76, DK-2300 Copenhagen S, Denmark; bernier@hum.ku.dk
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Abstract

Social scientific explanations of the role of European law associations in the making of a new European legal order argue that they were critical in empowering the European Court of Justice and defining the results of European legal integration. However, these approaches fail to highlight the complex context in which these associations evolved. By exploring the history of the French Association des juristes européens from 1951 to 1970 on the basis of comprehensive archival material, this paper provides a more contextualised understanding of what appears as a struggle with limited impact on the French reception of European law.

Construire et légitimer: les réseaux transnationaux der juristes et l'élaboration de la pratique juridique européenne, 1950–70

La recherche en sciences sociales sur le rôle d'associations nationales de juristes et de leur fédération dans l'élaboration d'un nouvel ordre juridique européen soutient qu'elles contribuèrent fortement à l'essor d'un droit spécifiquement européen. Néanmoins, cette recherche échoue à mettre en évidence la complexité du contexte dans lequel ces associations se sont développées. Fondé sur une documentation d'archives très complètes sur les premières années d'existence de l'Association française des juristes européens, cet article permet de mieux saisir les difficultés d'une lutte à l'effet limité sur la réception en France d'un droit fondamentalement européen entre 1951 et 1970.

Aufbau und legitimation: transnationale juristennetzwerke und der aufbau einer verfassungspraxis des europäischen rechts, 1950–70

Sozialwissenschaftliche Erklärungen zur Rolle europäischer juristischer Vereinigungen beim Aufbau einer neuen europäischen Rechtsordnung argumentieren, dass sie beim Ermächtigen des Europäischen Gerichtshofs und Definieren der Ergebnisse der europäischen Rechtsintegration entscheidend gewesen seien. Doch diese Ansätze beleuchten nicht die komplexen Umstände, unter denen sich diese Vereinigungen entwickelt haben. Diese Studie untersucht die Geschichte der französischen Association des juristes européens von 1951 bis 1970 auf der Grundlage umfassender Archivunterlagen und vermittelt dadurch ein kontextualisierteres Verständnis dessen, was als Kampf mit begrenzten Auswirkungen auf die französische Rezeption des europäischen Rechts erscheint.

Type
Articles
Information
Contemporary European History , Volume 21 , Issue 3: Towards a New History of European Law , August 2012 , pp. 399 - 415
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012

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References

1 Vauchez, Antoine, ‘The Force of a Weak Field: Law and Lawyers in the Government of the European Union (For a Renewed Research Agenda)’, International Political Sociology, 2, 2 (2008), 128–44CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

2 Alter, Karen, The European Court's Political Power (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009), 66Google Scholar; and Vauchez, Antoine, ‘The Making of the European Union's Constitutional Foundations: The Brokering Role of Legal Entrepreneurs and Networks’, in Kaiser, Wolfram, Leucht, Brigitte and Gehler, Michael, eds, Transnational Networks in Regional Integration: Governing Europe 1945–83 (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010)Google Scholar; Vauchez, Antoine, ‘The transnational politics of judicialisation: Van Gend en Loos and the making of EU polity’, European Law journal, 16, 1 (2010), 1–28CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

3 Vauchez, ‘Brokering Role’, 11, 124 and Vauchez, ‘Van Gend en Loos’ for a very refined analysis of Van Gend en Loos and Costa v. ENEL.

4 Alter, European Court, 73.

5 Alter, European Court, 82; Vauchez, ‘Brokering Role’, 123–4.

6 Archives of the AJE, 60 rue Pierre Charron 75008 Paris; Quarterly publications of the AJE, Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Paris; the Historical Archives of the European Commission, Brussels; the archives of the French Ministry of Justice, private archives of Michel Gaudet, Fondation Jean Monnet pour l'Europe, Lausanne, Archives de Michel Gaudet (AMG), Chronos.

7 Unfortunately, the private archive of Philip at Archives Nationales in Paris does not hold any information on his role in AJE. I would like to thank Morten Rasmussen for this information.

8 In the Council of Europe in 1948, he had already advocated the broad outlines of what would become the Schuman Plan. See Ricœur, Paul, ‘André Philip, économiste, protestant et socialiste’, in Chevandier, Christian and Morin, Gilles, eds, André Philip, socialiste, patriote, chrétien (Paris: IGPDE, 2005) 1–3Google Scholar. See also Philip, André, ‘Fondements d'un droit européen’, Evidences, 34 (1953), 8–10Google Scholar.

9 Bulletin de l'Association des juristes européens (AJE bulletin), 33–34 (1971), 139.

10 AJE bulletin, 27–28 (1967), 5; 38 (1978), 15.

11 Courtin, like Philip, was a professor of political economy at the Faculté de Droit et des Sciences Economiques de Paris (Université Paris-1 Panthéon-Sorbonne since 1971) (Paris Faculté de Droit).

12 At this point former vice-president of the Assemblée Nationale (1947–51), she was also a lawyer of the Paris Cour d'Appel.

13 According to Alter, Pierre-Henri Teitgen who was then president of the Mouvement Républicain Populaire, was also one of the founders of the AJE. See Alter, European Court, 66. The archival record of the AJE remains unfortunately silent about this issue.

14 AJE bulletin, 13–14 (1963), 58; 17–18 (1964), 4; 38 (1978), 15–16. Translations of quotes from French articles and documents cited in the text and notes are my own.

15 The president of the French Conseil des Ministres (1953) and later of the High Authority (1955–1958).

16 Belgian politician and author of the Spaak report leading to the Treaties of Rome.

17 European federalist and law professor.

18 Luxembourg High Court judge and vice-president of the European Union of the Federalists (EUF).

19 See Article 1 of the original 1954 AJE's statutes. Cf. Alter, European Court, 67. Research in the AJE's archives shows however that the AJE's stated goal in the reprinted 1994 edition of the statutes used by Alter was identical to Article 1 of the original 1954 statutes.

20 Cf. Alter, European Court, 66, in which the date of founding is given as 1953.

21 See Associations, 13 Jul. 1954, Journal Officiel de la République Française, 6671 and www.association-des-juristes-europeens.eu/presentation.php (last visited Oct. 2011).

22 AJE bulletin, 38 (1978), 16.

23 The AJFA was founded in 1954 at the instigation of, among others, the Conseiller at the Cour de Cassation Jean Cosson, the ECJ advocate general Maurice Lagrange (1952–64) and his colleagues at the Conseil d'Etat (CE) Erwin Güldner and Daniel Pépy. Cosson, Güldner and Pépy also entered the AJE in the late 1950s. See www.ajfa.fr/2010/v_fr/ajfa.html (last visited Oct. 2011)

24 Libre Justice was a section of the International Commission of Jurists. See www.old.icj.org/news.php3?id_article=2709&lang=fr (last visited Oct. 2011).

25 AJE bulletin, 27–38 (1967), 6; 38 (1978), 16.

26 About 80% were members of the SLC and some even held leading positions there.

27 Approximately 70% of AJE members had been active in the Resistance networks and/or the ranks of the Free French Forces.

28 AJE bulletin, 13–14 (1963), 3 and Liora Israël, ‘La Résistance dans les milieux judiciaires’, Genèses, 45, Apr. 2001, 45–68. Strikingly, the Conseiller d'Etat Maurice Lagrange, who enforced Vichy's anti-Jewish laws, first became a member of the AJE in 1963 even though he had been closely associated with the AJE since its foundation.

29 Alter, European Court, 68.

30 Coming mainly from the Nancy or the Paris Faculté de Droit, these were Maurice Byé, Paris and head of the Centre de Droit Européen, Paul-Marie Gaudemet, Nancy, André de Laubadère, Paris, François Luchaire, Nancy, one of the drafters of the 1958 French Constitution, Jean de Soto, Strasbourg, and René Roblot, Nancy and Centre Européen Universitaire. See Centro italiano di studi giuridici, Actes officiels du congrès international sur la CECA, Milan-Stresa, 31 mai – 9 juin 1957, 8 (Milan: Giuffrè, 1959), 35–57; Bailleux, Julie, ‘Comment l'Europe vint au droit. Le premier congrès international d'études de la CECA (Milan-Stresa 1957)’, Revue française de science politique, 60, 2 (2010), 306CrossRefGoogle Scholar, 315.

31 Including Teitgen, the CE members Cassin and Alexandre Parodi and, later in the 1960s, Lagrange and Lecourt. See AJE bulletin, 38 (1978), 16; Gaudet to Cassin, 1 March 1965, AMG, Chronos.

32 In 1963, the SC had 36 members: among them fourteen lawyers, ten judges from ordinary courts, four Maître des Requêtes at the CE – one of them, Joseph Gand would replace Lagrange as ECJ advocate general in 1964 – and only three law professors. AJE bulletin, 13–14 (1963), 63.

33 Art. 7 and 11 of the statutes.

34 Vauchez, ‘Brokering Role’, 113–14. For a broader and more nuanced understanding of comparative law, see Francesca Bignami, ‘Comparative Law and the Rise of the European Court of Justice, Prepared for the biennial meeting of the European Union Studies Association’, Boston, March 3–6, 2011.

35 This ‘European legal association’ certainly prefigured the integration of the six national associations in the FIDE in 1961.

36 Gaudet to Krawielicki, 6 Dec. 1960, AMG, Chronos. See also AJE bulletin, 38 (1978), 16.

37 Revue de droit international et de droit comparé, 37 (1960), 275.

38 See AJE bulletin, 27–28 (1967), 6–7; Réunion de juristes européens, 1959, BAC.371/1991.589, Historical Archives of the European Commission (HAC), Bruxelles (HAC, BAC.371/1991.589).

39 AMG, Chronos, 1960, Objet: Association des juristes européens – Section Allemande, 6 Dec. 1960.

40 The Commission received a list of meeting participants. HAC, BAC.371/1991.589.

41 The Commission is divided into departments and services. The departments are known as Directorates-General (DGs).

42 See Morten Rasmussen in this special issue.

43 The president of the new association was former Dutch minister of justice, socialist and professor of law, Ivo Samkalden. At the founding meeting it was explicitly discussed that one of the key purposes of the NVER was to contribute to the establishment of a federation between the national associations. I thank Morten Rasmussen for this information.

44 Morten Rasmussen, ‘Constructing and Deconstructing “Constitutional” European Law: Some Reflections on How to Study the History of European Law’, in Henning Koch, Karsten Hagen-Sørensen, Ulrich Haltern and Joseph H. H. Weiler, eds, Europe: The New Legal Realism: Essays in Honour of Hjalte Rasmussen (Copenhagen: Djøf Publishing, 2010). The archival sources do not say anything about why a high-ranking French lawyer facilitated the formation of the German organisation. Robert Krawielicki, who also worked for the legal service, could in principle have done it.

45 Rapport au Colloque international de droit européen organisé par l'Association Belge pour le droit Européen, Bruxelles 12–14 Octobre. Bruylant, 1962. See Gaudet to Rey, 14 Jan. 1961, AMG, Chronos.

46 HAC, CEAB.2.2936, Note à Messieurs les Membres du Conseil d'administration du Service Juridique des Exécutifs Européens (HAC, CEAB.2.2936).

47 Vauchez writes of FIDE members thereby magnifying the role and activities of FIDE. See, for example, Vauchez, ‘Brokering Role’, 123–4.

48 HAC, CEAB.2.2936.

49 This is also the reason why FIDE does not hold a historical archive.

50 Gaudet to Rolland, 9 Sept. 1963, Oct. 1963, and Gaudet to Sohier, 11 March 1965, AMG, Chronos.

51 Deuxième colloque international de droit européen, La Haye, 24–26 Oct. 1963 and Troisième colloque de droit européen, Paris, 25–27 Nov. 1965.

52 See Karin van Leeuwen's contribution in this special issue.

53 Aff. 26/62 N. V. Algemene Transport – en Expeditie Onderneming van Gend & Loos v. Nederlandse Administratie der Belastingen (1963), Recueil 1963, 0003. See also Vauchez, ‘Van Gend en Loos’.

54 Vauchez, ‘Brokering Role’, 111.

55 As described by Morten Rasmussen in this special issue.

56 Alter, European Court, 73.

57 AJE bulletin, 38 (1978), 15.

58 AJE bulletin, 10 (1962), 30; 11–12 (1962), 52–56; 15–16 (1963), 23–82; 17–18 (1964), 67–71; 19–20 (1965), 10–56 and 27–28 (1967), 14–186.

59 Seminar on ‘The Organisation of Trade Representation and Registered Designations of Origin’. See AJE bulletin, 10 (1962), 30; 11–12 (1962), 54; 13–14 (1963), 54.

60 Seminar on ‘agricultural issues’. See AJE bulletin, 17–18 (1964), 65; 23–4 (1965), 101–3.

61 Seminar on ‘The Legal Problems of British Accession to the Common Market’. See AJE bulletin, 29–30 (1969), 59–114.

62 AJE bulletin, 15–16 (1964), 23–82; 27–28 (1967), 5–9.

63 AJE bulletin, 17–18 (1964), 16, 81; 21–22 (1965), 141; Gaudet to Labry, 23 Feb. 1965, AMG, Chronos.

64 Gaudet to Rolland, 28 May 1963; Gaudet to Thiesing, 14 Oct. 1963; Gaudet to Rabier, 26 Oct. 1964, AMG, Chronos.

65 AJE bulletin, 27–28 (1967), 8.

66 The AJE thus organised within three years a conference on ‘The Grouping of Firms on a European Scale’ and an international congress entitled ‘Towards a European-type Firm’. See AJE bulletin, 21–22 (1965); 27–28 (1967).

67 Houin and co-founder Claude-Albert Colliard were colleagues at both the Paris Faculté de Droit and the AJE.

68 These were Maurice Aydalot (attorney general at the Cour de Cassation), Raymond Odent (member of the Conseil d'Etat), Brunois, Gand, Jeantet, Lagrange, Lecourt, Parodi, Rolland, Teitgen, Touffait and Vedel. See Gaudet to Narjes, 28 Apr. 1965, AMG, Chronos.

69 AJE bulletin, 27–28 (1967), 7; 38 (1978), 17.

70 AJE bulletin, 17–18 (1964), 63; Rolland to Foyer, 5 May 1964, CAC950411, L27, Dossier de droit européen années 1892, 1929–1991, Ministère de la Justice (MJ), Archives Nationales Fontainebleau (ANF) (ANF/MJ CAC).

71 Foyer to the attorney general at the Paris Cour d'Appel, 5 Oct. 1962 and 20 Dec. 1962, ANF/MJ CAC950411, L118–2.

72 Michel Mangenot, ‘Le Conseil d'Etat et l'institutionnalisation du système juridique communautaire’, paper presented at ‘Les juristes et la construction d'un ordre politique européen’, Amiens, Apr. 2004, 5–6 (Mangenot, ‘CE’). See also AJE bulletin, 25–26 (1967), 7–9.

73 Gaudet to Ortoli, 9 March 1964, AMG, Chronos; AJE bulletin, 17–18 (1964), 3.

74 For example, Rolland and Pettiti to Foyer, 17 May 1965, ANF/MJ, CAC 950411, L27. See also AJE bulletin, 25–26 (1967), 7.

75 For example Foyer to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 11 Feb. 1963, ANF/MJ, CAC19771466. Article 245. Affaires 26.62. See also Buffet-Tchakaloff, Marie-France, La France devant la Cour de Justice des Communautés Européennes (Paris: Economica 1985), 49Google Scholar.

76 Plötner, Jens, ‘Report on France’, in Slaughter, Anne-Marie et al. , eds, The European Court and National Courts – Doctrine and Jurisprudence (Oxford: Hart Publishing, 1998), 53–4Google Scholar.

77 Article 26 had originally been promoted by Philip who was considered as the father of the 1946 Constitution. See Loïc Philip, ‘André Philip, constituant’, in Chevandier and Morin, André Philip, 165–80.

78 For instance the role of the ministry of finance, which had endorsed a pro-European attitude in the 1950s, was successfully weakened to the benefit of the foreign ministry and its hard-core Gaullist minister, Maurice Couve de Murville. See Alexandre Bernier, ‘Dans l'ombre de l'Elysée: Etude des forces animatrices de la politique européenne du Général de Gaulle’, MA Dissertation, Copenhagen University, 2009, 69–76.

79 It had been included in the 1958 Constitution by de Gaulle to weaken the CE which up to 1958 had the monopoly of interpreting not only public but also constitutional law.

80 Due to the fact that the CE was not inscribed in the Constitution of 1958, de Gaulle could have dissolved it entirely legitimately. See Plötner, ‘Report’, 42, 57.

81 The members of the CE come from the French administration and therefore would usually refrain from putting the French Republic in a delicate situation vis-à-vis Community law.

82 Plötner, ‘Report’, 44–45.

83 When Touffait became first president at the Paris Cour d'Appel in 1962, he immediately supplied the AJE with facilities from the court so that the association could manage a ‘centre for European law documentation’. AJE bulletin, 17–18 (1964), 63; 27–28 (1967), 7–8; 38 (1978), 17.

84 Buffet-Tchakaloff, La France, 92; Georges Le Tallec, ‘Droit européen: approches de la Cour de Cassation et du Conseil d'Etat’, 14 May 1990, Archives de l'AJE, Paris.

85 Themaat made sure that the French ministry of justice was alerted. As the decision clearly ran counter to the legal commitments France had endorsed in Brussels, Foyer ensured that the matter be referred to the Paris Cour d'Appel. See Foyer to Paihlé, 14 Oct. 1962, ANF/MJ CAC950411, L118–2.

86 Cour d'Appel de Paris. Affaire B6270: Société UNEF v. Ets. Consten. Like Themaat, Gaudet followed this case very closely as it coincided with the early stages of the Commission's decision on the Grundig-Consten cartel (Decision 64/566/CEE, 23 Sept. 1964), which would later develop into cases 56 and 58/64 before the ECJ leading to the Judgment of the Court of 13 July 1966 described in detail by Witschke-Warlouzet in this special issue. See ANF/MJ CAC950411, L118, 27/2–63 and 2/3–63 and also AJE bulletin, 13–14 (1963), 47–48.

87 AJE bulletin, 13–14 (1963), 5–30, 35–36.

88 As attorney general at the Cour de Cassation, André Pépy had argued in vain in 1950 that Article 26 of the 1946 Constitution ‘was a sign of the legislative will that judges apply international law over national law’. Alter, Karen, Establishing the Supremacy of European Law: The Making of an International Rule of Law in Europe (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001), 136Google Scholar.

89 Alter, Establishing, 134.

90 La Hessische Knappschaft c/ Maison Singer et Fils, decision of 1 June 1965. The ECJ's advocate general who handled this case was none other but the AJE member Joseph Gand. See Buffet-Tchakaloff, La France, 91.

91 Buffet-Tchakaloff, La France, 281; Plötner, ‘Report’, 60–1.

92 See the contribution by Anne Boerger in this special issue.

93 See Mangenot, ‘CE’.

94 Older members such as Lagrange, Parodi and Cassin performed their duties in these departments.

95 ENA graduates were indeed the products of an institution which taught Community law ‘in an atmosphere of distrust towards European integration’. See Plötner, ‘Report’, 56.

96 Questiaux joined the AJE only from 1967 to 1968 and advocated during a congress in late 1967 a more intensive use of the acte clair doctrine, confronting Lagrange on this matter. She was also the commissaire du gouvernement (the CE equivalent to the advocate general) on the highly sceptical Semoules decision (Syndicat général des fabricants de semoules de France, 1 March 1968).

97 Gaudet to Rolland, 14 Dec. 1964, AMG, Chronos.

98 Colliard and two colleagues from the Paris Faculté de Droit, Paul Reuter and André de Laubadère.

99 Lagrange, Gaudet and Nicola Catalano.

100 Among others André Pépy.

101 Was Odent converted? He would indeed join the AJE in 1967 and would later criticise the poor conciliatory attitude of the CE. See AJE bulletin, 23–24 (1965), 3–45; Buffet-Tchakaloff, La France, 307.

102 Syndicat national des importateurs français de produits laitiers et avicoles and S. A. des établissements Petitjean et autres, decisions of 27 Jan. and 10 Feb. 1967. See Alter, Establishing, 139.

103 Syndicat général des fabricants de semoules de France, decision of 1 March 1968. See Buffet-Tchakaloff, La France, 301. It would take over twenty years for the CE to reverse this legal interpretation by accepting in the famous Nicolo ruling that Article 55 empowers judges to set aside statutes that are contrary to Community law (Raoul Georges Nicolo et autres, CE decision of 20 Oct. 1989). See Frydman, Patrick, ‘Le juge administratif, le traité et la loi postérieure’, Revue française de droit administratif, 5, 5 (1989), 813–24Google Scholar.

104 Correspondance Mitchell/Gaudet, 20 March 1968, AMG, Chronos.

105 Michel Mangenot, ‘Une Europe improbable: Les Hauts fonctionnaires français dans la construction européenne 1948–1992’, Ph.D thesis, Université Robert Schuman de Strasbourg, 2000. See also Buffet-Tchakaloff, La France, 309–10.

106 Alter, European Court, 67–9.

107 Administration des douanes c/ Sté Cafés Jacques Vabre, SARL J. Weigel et Cie, decision of 24 May 1975.

108 Plötner, ‘Report’, 62–63.

109 Nicolo ruling of 1989.