ABSTRACT
Using the concept of “weak field” coined by Christian Topalov and Antoine Vauchez, this chapter examines the making of European social policies from the 1940s to the 1970s. Though a socio-historical analysis (based on archival research and prosopography), it explores the transnational nebula of social reformers as well as the ‘weak field’ of legal specialists organized in international associations. At the same time these legal specialists worked as experts for many international organizations, the European Economic Community (EEC) and European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) mobilized them to gain authority. These jurists hence played the role of brokers between several international organizations and national administrations interested in the making of an international social law. The field of the European social law was encapsulated in this transnational setting. These legal specialists were of paramount importance to forge the new categories of the European social law (such as ‘deterritorialized social rights’ or ‘social harmonization’).
