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21 Eur. L.J. 1 (2015)

handle is hein.journals/eurlj21 and id is 1 raw text is: 


European Law Journal, Vol. 21, No. 1, January 2015, p. 1.
C 2014 John Wiley & Sons Ltd., 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford, OX4 2DQ, UK
and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA




                            In This Issue



This issue marks a transition point in the life of this journal. Readers who peruse the
inside cover of the journal (or our website) will notice that the editorial board has
been (thoroughly) renovated. Self-questioning, self-criticism and even a penchant for
self-subversion have been constitutive of the identity of the European Law Journal
since its foundation. The new editorial board will contribute to keep this identity
alive. I am extremely happy to report that the new board is close to complete gender
balance (and hopefully will be rather soon in full gender balance). The new board is
also more inclusive of the different legal, political and cultural traditions that make up
the European legal mosaic. This will certainly lead to new ideas, new debates and new
sections, in all cases reflecting an invariable commitment to thinking law in its eco-
nomic, political, historical, social and cultural context. Never before was the reporting
of the content of European  law an  act so pregnant of radical implications. Never
before so much  was at stake in Europe: socially, economically and politically. Not
since the end of the Second World War was the very identity of European societies as
open and  cooperative, democratic and socially just societies so much challenged.
  If the proof of the cake is in the eating, the proof of the journal is in its contents.
Both  Gareth  Davies  and Marija  Bartl break  new  ground  on  subsidiarity. Both
authors  focus  on  the structural constitution of  power  allocation in  Europe.
Separately, each  piece challenges not only  the existing literature, but also the
practice (and discourse) of European institutions. Jointly, Davies and Bartl redefine
the very  terms in  which  the debate on  subsidiarity should proceed  from  now
onwards. Tanja  Ehnert draws  major theoretical and constitutional lessons from the
study  of what  is at first sight the rather specialised if not esoteric subject of
nanotechnologies  in food (including nanofood). She  acknowledges  that European
institutions produce lots of expertise, but she puts forward powerful  reasons to
doubt that this expertise amounts to the kind of knowledge which could justify the
claim to legitimacy implicit in European  practice. The point  she raises goes far
beyond  the specific subject she studies. Nanofood may be physically tiny, but after
you  read the paper, you will be forced to agree that its legal implications are far
from   small. Fabien  Terpan   offers  a systematic  and   theoretically grounded
reconstruction of soft law.  After the inflation (and recent  devaluation) of the
concept, it is high time we come  to terms with what  exactly soft law is and with
what  we mean  when  we  characterise law as soft. Terpan puts us on  a promising
track. Marek  Szydlo revisits one of the key affirmative action policies in European
law: gender equality on company  boards. He makes  us rethink the legal framework
and suggests some  reasons why we  should be careful when drawing  conclusions on
the matter. Finally, William Phelan  invites us to revisit the very first European
'troika', namely the trio of founding cases of European constitutional law. Phelan's
work  is both a piece of legal history and a very contemporary plea for a different
understanding  of European  law.


Agustin Josh Menindez

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