Austerity And Law In Europe

Austerity and Law in Europe presents an interdisciplinary collection of essays that challenge traditional narratives of austerity. The contributions recast austerity as a historically contingent political rationality that operates through law and technocracy.

• A collection of essays that tackles the relationship between austerity and law within and outside the European Union
• Draws on a set of interdisciplinary contributions, incorporating insights from European law, economic history, legal theory, and economics
• Reveals how austerity measures in Europe were not implemented as an outcome of legal or economic necessity, but were a political choice
• Presents austerity as a historically contingent political rationality which gained a legal endorsement in the EU law and policy without foreclosing the possibilities for contestation either through law or politics

Austerity and Law in Europe: An Introduction (Marija Bartl and Markos Karavias)
The Guardians of Capitalism: International Consensus and the Technocratic Implementation of Austerity (Clara E. Mattei)
Has (Downturn-)Austerity Really Been `Constitutionalized' in Europe? On the Ideological Dimension of Such a Claim (Clemens Kaupa)
The Crisis of Law and the European Crises: From the Social and Democratic Rechtsstaat to the Consolidating State of (Pseudo-)technocratic Governance (Agustin J. Menendez)
The Bank, the Bond, and the Bail-out: On the Legal Construction of Market Discipline in the Eurozone (Harm Schepel)
The Growth of Debt and the Debt of Growth: Lessons from the Case of Argentina (Pablo J. Lopez and Cecilia Nahon)
Social Rights Constitutionalism: An Antagonistic Endorsement (Emilios Christodoulidis)
Contesting Austerity: On the Limits of EU Knowledge Governance (Marija Bartl)

Marija Bartl is Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Law, University of Amsterdam, and a Senior Researcher at The Architecture of Post-National Rulemaking project.

Markos Karavias is Assistant Professor in International Law at the Faculty of Law, University of Amsterdam and a Member of the Athens Bar. He is the author of Corporate Obligations under International Law (2013). Austerity measures have formed the basis of the European policy response to the economic crisis. The very concept of “austerity” has at the same time also fundamentally transformed the way we think about law, rights, and politics in contemporary Europe. Yet how do austerity and the law interrelate within the EU—and elsewhere? Austerity and Law in Europe presents a collection of thought-provoking essays that set out to challenge traditional narratives and critiques of austerity by exposing its historical contingency and recasting austerity as a political rationality with simultaneous links to both liberalism and expert governance. Featuring interdisciplinary contributions from experts in European law, economic history, legal theory, and more, essays show how the path of austerity in Europe was not taken as an outcome of legal or economic necessity—it was in fact a political choice. The collection also makes clear that Europe is not left without alternatives. Essays serve as a clarion call to lawyers, political scientists, and economists to further explore alternatives to extreme budgetary austerity while appreciating the pluralist nature of EU treaties, the shielding role of social rights in the European legal orders, and political avenues for democratic contestation of both theory and practices of austerity. Austerity and Law in Europe offers illuminating insights into one of the most contentious and polarizing issues of contemporary Europe.