Bulletin n. 1-2/2014 | ||
November 2014 | ||
Åsa Casula Vifell and Ebba Sjögren |
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The Legal Mind of the Internal Market: A Governmentality Perspective on the Judicialization of Monitoring Practices | ||
in Journal of Common Market Studies , Volume 52, Issue 3, May 2014 , 2014 , 461-478 | ||
The purpose of this article is to contribute to the understanding of the broader effects of monitoring practices in the European Union. The empirical setting is Solvit, a Commission-initiated network tasked with informal resolution of misapplications of internal market directives by national authorities. All Member States must operate a Solvit centre within their administrations. Using a governmentality approach, the article investigates the normative underpinnings of the technologies deployed by Solvit and the experts which operate them. A survey study of the Solvit network shows the development of an EU identity and a cognitive judicialization which contributes to a depoliticization of issues. This allows Solvit to expand its remit from ex post monitoring to ex ante regulation. While a governance instrument can be designed for a delimited task, a governmentality approach highlights more general mechanisms by which such an instrument's influence and reach may be extended beyond its modest appearances. | ||