New Governance and the European Union. An Empirical and Conceptual Critique

Co-organised by the Jean Monnet Chair in European and Transnational Governance

Lecture

In exploring a wide range of developments in EU governance across a variety of policy domains and over many years, Professor Kenneth Armstrong (University of Cambridge) pinpoints the potential contribution of new governance scholarship to our understanding of EU governance.

The European Union is a striking illustration of a phenomenon evident nationally, internationally and transnationally, namely pluralisation and differentiation in the techniques, tools and methods deployed by public and private actors in the search for more legitimate and/or more effective means of securing economic and social governance.

The European landscape has proved fertile terrain for the elaboration of a ‘new governance’ approach to European integration that is keen to illuminate the limits of a ‘traditional’ approach to European law-making and law-enforcement typically associated with the ‘Community Method’ and to uncover alternative experiments in European governance.

While acknowledging the need for analytical refinement and conceptual clarification, Professor Kenneth Armstrong engages with three key themes: a critical approach to law and governance; a pluralist and sociological account of law; and legal scholarship as a contribution to pragmatic and progressive politics.

About the lecturer

Kenneth Armstrong is Professor of European Law at the University of Cambridge. Before he was Professor of EU law at Queen Mary, University of London. Kenneth has written extensively in the field of European Union law and policy, with a particular focus on the evolving governance and institutional structures of the EU.

His book Governing Social Inclusion: Europeanization through Policy Coordination was published by Oxford University Press in 2010 and won the 2011 UACES Best Book Prize. He is currently researching the European Union’s response to the economic crisis.

He is a member of the editorial board of the European Law Journal. In April 2014, Kenneth Armstrong is ACCESS EUROPE Visiting Professor.

Registration

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