ABSTRACT
As suggested in the preceding parts of this book, studying European legal integration implies examining a number of processes: constitutionalization and democratization, or conversely, the dynamics of transnational market formation. Some of the authors describe legal actors as ‘the missing link’ in integration studies (Chs. 7, 9 and 10), yet this view does not cover the fact that jurists, judges and lawyers, the flesh and blood of legal integration, belong to a plurality of legal cultures and speak a multitude of different languages. Although often neglected in integration studies, the success of the European project heavily relies on the possibility of a mutual understanding of European legal actors and an ability to surmount the barriers caused by linguistic and cultural diversity and difference.
