Law, politics, and pragmatism in the European Union and the United Kingdom

Abstract

Introduction Lawyers and politicians regularly make responses (more or less effectively) to controversies and crises that, in their distinctiveness, take them by surprise. Where their efforts yield successful outcomes, the view may gain currency that a society has it in its power to move towards a stable set of practical arrangements in which people enjoy enduring security. Here we can talk of a vision that tends in the direction of an end-state. Social flux may, however, encourage a more modest view. The need to use legal and political power in ways attuned to changing circumstances may support the conclusion that societies do well if they succeed in staying afloat on a sea of contingency. Both Luuk van Middelaar in Alarums and Excursions: Improvising Politics on the European Stage and Vernon Bogdanor in Britain and Europe in a Troubled World (The Henry L Stimson Lectures) throw light on each of these views. Van Middelaar lends support to the view that the aspiration to move towards an end-state (that can quickly take on the appearance of an ideal) is problematic. He also has much to say on how the European Union (a social formation not amenable to analysis as a conventional state) can meet the challenges posed by social flux. This aspect of his exposition has to do with a pragmatic practical outlook. Those who possess this outlook respond to legal, political, economic, and other problems by addressing the question ‘What will work or prove useful in this set of circumstances?’