L’ européisation du droit : de l’Élargissement des champs du droit de l’Union européenne à une transformation des droits des États membres

Abstract

The article - to be published in Guibentif and Gonçalves (eds), Os novos territórios do direito: Globalização, europeização e transformação da regulação juridical, Coimbra : Almedina, 2006 or 2007 – explores a few elements of what may be labelled as the Europeanisation of Law – européisation, as opposed to the word européanisation which is usually used in the French language, but grammatically incorrect? Europeanisation of Law may be understood as a phenomenon of broadening of the scope of European law, as well as the emergence of new legal disciplines in Europe, linked to European integration. In both cases, the impact of Human Rights is particularly important. Apart from the development of new normative contents of law in Europe, Europeanisation has three main consequences: a fundamental change in the systems of sources of law in the legal systems of European countries, a coming closer of legal systems which contributes to the break up of the common law family of legal system as well as of the legal systems derived from continental European countries, and changes in terms of methodology of legal sciences.