Contenu du sommaire : L'archive européenne

KNOWLEDGE AND POWER IN EUROPEAN GOVERNMENT. TOWARDS A SOCIOHISTORY OF THE ARCHIVES OF THE EUROPEAN UNIONThis article (and the journal issue it introduces) proposes a new angle of research on the different forms of “European knowledge“, from the lens of the philosophical notion of the Archive. This concept, borrowed from the historians and more specifically from Michel Foucault's The Archaeology of Knowledge, is reworked and put to the service of a sociohistory that is mindful simultaneously of the actors involved, their conflicting interests and their discourse. Under the umbrella of “European knowledge“, this study is able to shed light on many things which had hitherto been left in the dark. For while the study of transnational “government knowledge“ has rapidly expanded, such research has primarily focused on the most established categories and paradigms : on what might be called the European doxa. But these studies have therefore neglected all the aborted attempts at knowledge that have accompanied the process of European integration: forgotten categories, lost objects, disputed and rejected forms of knowledge – in short, all the “doxic failures“ that the notion of the Archive allows us to take into account by expanding the scope to include the many (and often contradictory) discourses that have been formulated with regard to Europe, by actors far more diverse than the image presented by well-known “European entrepreneurs“. This article offers a way to recontextualise the “Europe of Brussels“ in a variety of different historical and social contexts, with a view to better understanding the logics of its structuring.

CLASSIFYING EUROPE. ESTABLISHING THE HISTORICAL ARCHIVES OF THE EUROPEAN UNIONIt may be argued that since many of the documents it houses are not accessible to the public, the Historical Archives of the European Union (HAEU) function as a kind of trompe-l'œil monument. The Archives nevertheless remain one of main material and symbolic embodiments of European power. This article demonstrates that their establishment involved the mobilisation of various actors : European institutions (first and foremost the Commission) and historical agents of European integration, as well as historians and archivists. These “co-entrepreneurs“ were not solely driven by the desire to legitimise the European Union. Despite internal conflicts, they cooperated in the service of establishing an official history of institutions and leaders, to the detriment of other, less heroic views of Europe which were initially considered but rapidly discarded. The effects that the Archives have had on scientific publications nonetheless deserves a more nuanced approach, given that scholars use also complementary sources.

HAVE EUROPEAN SOCIAL SCIENCES HELPED TO CREATE EUROPE?. THE EUROPEAN UNIVERSITY INSTITUTE, BEHAVIOURALISM, AND THE LEGITIMISING OF EUROPEAN INTEGRATIONFounded in 1976 in Florence, the European University Institute embodied the goal of legitimising the European project on the basis of scientific knowledge. This article seeks to shed light on how such a political imperative was refracted throughout the scientific activities of the Institute, as well as to describe the type of knowledge that the Institute produced and to understand its contribution to the creation of European archives. Drawing on a study of the history of the Institute's department of social and political science and using a wide variety of archival materials, this article illustrates how a behaviouralist, quantitative and comparative political science of Europe came to dominate the department's work. The trajectory of this paradigmatic victory highlights one of the mechanisms which govern certain perspectives that are key to European studies today.

THE FRAUGHT DEVELOPMENT OF EUROPEAN PUBLIC SERVICE DOCTRINE. THE GENESIS OF THE “SERVICE OF GENERAL ECONOMIC INTEREST“ (1958-1968)This article explores a neglected corner of the Historical Archives of the European Union : namely, the stunning failure of attempts to establish a separation between the public and the private – a division that is otherwise so prevalent at the national level in many member states – at the intellectual heart of the “European project“. By examining the historical conflicts surrounding the notions of “public enterprise“ and “service of general economic interest“ which accompanied the birth of the European Economic Community, this article describes the fraught development of a European doctrine of public service in the context of its six founding members, where the state and parastatal sectors are nonetheless thriving. Observing the trajectory of these two key notions allows us to better understand how European economic doxa was initially developed, as well as to shed light on some of the forgotten forms of knowledge that have been lost in the stacks of the broader European “archives“.

A MARKET WITHOUT ECONOMISTS?. MARKET PLANNING AND THE IMPOSSIBLE EMERGENCE OF EUROPEAN ECONOMICS (1957-1967)The contribution of academics to European integration has attracted renewed interest in recent years. But while the role of jurists has been frequently highlighted with regard to the production of forms of knowledge, the contribution of economists seems surprisingly limited during the early years of the Common Market. This article investigates the paradox of a form of economic knowledge that doesn't “come“ to the Common Market. In this regard, we shall study the mobilisation, in the early 1960s, of a collective of economists and politicians who promoted European economic planning. We argue that the difficulty of producing economic knowledge that is recognised as “scientific“ is an important explanation for their relative failure. It is therefore necessary to emphasise the obstacle faced by any attempt at exploiting (economic) science in politics: the success of a “scientific government“ not only depends on the ability of its advocates to call on science, but also to establish a stable distinction between science and politics.

PITTING THE STATE AGAINST EUROPE. THE BIRTH OF LEGAL ORTHODOXY IN THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF GERMANY FROM 1949 TO THE MAASTRICHT TREATYTaking as its starting point the ruling by the German Federal Constitutional Court (FCC) on the Maastricht Treaty, this article deals with the conditions under which a form of “counter-knowledge“ of European integration was formally developed. While they have so far received less attention than the justices of the European Court of Justice – who are popular subjects for political and sociological studies on European integration – German FCC judges nonetheless appear to possess a specific authority and influence on European politics. In this regard, the so-called “Maastricht decision“ represents a seminal moment, which many commentators have interpreted as reflecting a sovereignist perspective that is inherently hostile towards European integration. Distancing itself from this reading, however, this article demonstrates that this decision cannot be satisfyingly explained without taking into account the struggles amongst jurists and public law scholars vying for a monopoly on constitutional interpretation. Analysing the constitutional controversy surrounding the Maastricht Treaty, this article shows how a specific group of law professors succeeded in imposing constitutional law as the dominant form of political knowledge.

FROM INTERNATIONAL LAW TO EUROPEAN LAW. THE SOCIOLOGY OF SOCIAL LAW AS A CAUSE PROMOTION PROCESSAs a study in the political sociology of law, this article focuses on the interlinkages between the development of international social law and European social law after World War Two. Adopting a sociological perspective to the transnational mobilisation of social law professionals, this study highlights how these jurists (both national and international civil servants as well as academics) helped to establish connections between national, European and international organisations. It particularly emphasises the important role played by legal experts from the International Society for Labour and Social Security Law, an international association created with the support of the International Labour Organisation. This article shows how the development of European social law was based on concepts and professional practices that had been established at the international level. The instrumentalisation of these social law professionals by the civil servants of the various European Communities rendered European social law dependent on pre-existing international law and precedents. European social law can therefore be seen as the product of an attempt to regionalise international legal knowledge.