Volume 14, Issue 2

„Europe“ as a concept is as yet far from being discovered by socio-legal research. This holds for the transformation processes in Central and Eastern Europe as well as for the integration processes within the European Community. Nevertheless, whilst the fact that Europe has to a large extent remained terra incognita for theoretical and empirical research in legal sociology is easily explained as regards the relatively recent transformation processes in its middle and Eastern parts, this lack of familiarity raises many more questions in respect of four decades of Western European integration. Three possible reasons for this retarded response might be distinguished: the preponderance of positive law in the formation of the European Community which consequently retards empirical investigation into procedures and effects; the low profile of genuinely European politics and legislation which both tend instead to be absorbed by national legal and administrative cultures; and, the extraordinary methodological difficulties which the intermingling of European and national legal effects poses to the isolation of phenomena.

Starring with a theoretical analysis of the limits to build universalistic communities the author presents Durkheim’s concept of concentric solidarities and Weber’s underestimated category of „Gemeinsamkeitsglaube“ in order to give an idea of the social and sociological construction of Europe.

Over the last several decades, the European Court of Justice has become an extremely powerful political institution. Indeed, perhaps no other institution has contributed more to the building and maintenance of the European Community. Recently, the Court of Justice has assumed a more visible, if not more activist, role in the politics of the European Community, causing some to question the basic legitimacy of the institution. This article addresses the question of mass perceptions of the Court, focusing on its salience and legitimacy among ordinary citizens of the EC. Our findings indicate that the Court is fairly visible to the mass public, but that its level of legitimacy is fairly low. The precarious position of the Court within the minds of the mass public can also be seen in the general unwillingness to accept as definitive an unpopular decision by the European Court of Justice. This finding is important because it points to a major consequence of low institutional legitimacy – the inability to gain compliance with decisions that citizens oppose. Should the Court become intertwined in a conspicuous political controversy, it may well face substantial challenges to its authority.

Zusammenfassung Mit der regimespezifischen Kooperation, Rechtsunifikation und bürokratischen Integration wird die von einer freigesetzten expertokratischen Funktionselite getragene „Veralltäglichung“ der europäischen Einigung vollzogen. Daß mit der Staatswerdung EG-Europas zugleich konstitutive politisch-kulturelle Deutungsmuster, Legitimationsideen und Ordnungsstrukturen der Nationalstaaten folgenreich in Frage gestellt, partiell sogar desintegriert werden, wird in diesem Beitrag als Prozeß der institutionellen Differenzierung auf supranationaler Ebene verstanden. Die Institutionenanalyse berücksichtigt exemplarisch Aspekte der supranationalen Legitimation, der transbürokratischen Organisationsnetze und plurinationalen Kooptationsregime insbesondere im Rahmen der Kommission. Eine tentative Einschätzung der Zukunftsperspektiven wird in der Hypothese von der technokratischen Regimebildung sui generis auf EG-Ebene zusammengefaßt. Summary: The European unification process is based on the specific institutionalized rationalities of supranational law and procedures, on a transnational integration of bureaucratic structures and the autonomization of a expertocratic elite. The main argument of this contribution rests on the hypothesis that the statebuilding process at EC-level challenges basic patterns of political thinking, legitimation and institutional order of the nation-states. In this sense European integration is considered as a process of institutional differentiation. The analysis focuses on aspects of the supranational legitimation, trans-bureaucratic networks and pluri-national regimes of cooptation within the institutional framework of the Commission. With regard to the future development of the EC it is argued that a technocratic regime sui generis is emerging as a new political entity above the old European nations.

Focussing on the social processes the article deals with the reception of the European health and safety at work regulation into the german occupational health and safety system. The European regulation provides a high level of safety and health. The transfer into german law tums out to be slow and problematic, what is described on the basis of the transfer of two European directives. The study seeks to explain the inadequate reception recurring to theoretical assumptions of successful reception and to draw conclusions from this for the further process.

One of the main problems in empirical investigations of the argumentative behavior of judges is the compilation of a suitable databasis. Here the analytical use of electronic databases (for example of the German Host „Juris“) may lead to an improvement. The jurisdiction databasis of „Juris“ contains in an electronic form all important publicated German legal decisions, partly with the whole text of the decision. This permits the application of computer-assisted analyses of their contents. A simple example is the computation of time series of term frequencies. In the German jurisdiction for the years 1950 until 1992 we detected mainly three patterns of term frequencies: constant level for example for general reference to the lawmaker; increasing level for example for the general reference to jurisdiction since the eithies; fluctuating level for the frequencies of terms like Lebenserfahrung (experience of life), Rechtssicherheit (security of law), and Gemeinwohl (public weal). The different areas of law can be characterized by the frequencies of certain legal terms; the affinity of those areas can be shown graphically for example by multidimensional scaling (MDS). In all, the results of the investigation point to the utilization of legal decision databases for the sociology of law.