As one of the six founding Member States of the European Union, Italy has had a long-standing and influential voice in the shaping of EU law and its Court of Justice.
This Alcide De Gasperi seminar brings together legal scholars and historians to examine the legal history of two key areas of EU law in light of Italy’s influence on the development of the EU legal order: the principle of equal pay for male and female workers in Art 119 EEC, introduced with the 1957 Rome Treaties, and the development of the EU Court of Justice since 1952.
In an interdisciplinary reflection, the workshop elaborates what EU historians and lawyers can learn from each other and how this field can be methodologically interrogated. In the first part of the seminar, Nina Cozzi (Max Planck Institute for Legal History and Legal Theory) will present her innovative research on the legal history of Art 119 EEC’s principle of equal pay in light of the Italian context and the early years of the EEC. Fernanda G. Nicola (American University Washington College of Law) will discuss the presentation.
In the second part of the seminar, Daniele Gallo (LUISS), Fernanda G. Nicola (American University Washington College of Law), Lorenzo Cecchetti (KU Leuven / LUISS) and Celestina Iannone (CJEU) will present their edited volume The Italian Influence on European Law Judges and Advocates General (1952-2000). This intriguing collection disaggregates the Court of Justice as an actor of EU law-making via the use of judicial biographies. It sheds light on the Italian influence on European law, the Court’s continuous relationship to the Member States, and the practice of the principle of judicial independence. Maria Patrin (Jacques Delors Centre, Hertie School) will be the discussant.
Marc Steiert, research fellow in the EUI-based project ‘The Social Partners as shapers and makers of Social Europe: discovering foundations and futures’, will chair the session.
The Alcide De Gasperi Centre supports researchers working in areas related to the history of European integration and cooperation. It coordinates networks of historians, facilitates the use of primary sources and increases public interest in the history of European integration.
Photo: Italian Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs Alcide De Gasperi, centre, leads the Italian delegation at the July 1952 Council of Ministers meetings in Paris, where the appointment of members of the Court of Justice was discussed. © United States Special Representative in Europe (USA/SRE - Paris), 1952. Source: EC - Audiovisual Service