Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2006
Status
Accepted
Abstract
This article reviews the book, Law, Legitimacy, and European Governance: Functional Participation in Social Regulation, by Stijn Smismans. Law, Legitimacy, and European Governance is part of a movement to reinvent the Economic and Social Committee and the form of interest group politics that originated there—what Smismans calls “functional participation.” Smismans argues that functional participation can contribute to the legitimacy of the Economic and Social Committee and that the constitutional debates concerning the construction of a supranational European polity have largely neglected this European project. The book assesses the full range of European bodies that were originally created to represent economic interests and that have since expanded to include other civil society actors. In doing so, the book reveals the potential of functional participation to a wide variety of audiences in the areas of political theory, political science, and law.
GW Paper Series
GWU Legal Studies Research Paper No. 2012-150, GWU Law School Public Law Research Paper No. 2012-150
SSRN Link
http://ssrn.com/abstract=2194411
Recommended Citation
Francesca Bignami, Rethinking Interest Representation in the European Union, 26 OXFORD J. LEGAL STUD. 439 (2006) (reviewing STIJN SMISMANS, LAW, LEGITIMACY, AND EUROPEAN GOVERNANCE: FUNCTIONAL PARTICIPATION IN SOCIAL REGULATION (2004)).