ABSTRACT
Access to justice comprises two elements: ‘access’ and ‘justice’. The terminology suggests that there are groups in society which are excluded from justice and which may, or should be, allowed to voice their concerns to those bodies whose role it is to guarantee justice. Linked to the process of European integration, ‘access’ and justice’ raise questions about the constitutionality of the EC. The argument that I will bring forward here is that there are lessons to be learnt for lawyers and for policy-makers from the EC not despite but because of the incomplete integration process and legal order, and the missing democratic institutional structure. Privatisation is the magic formula which gears European constitution-making inter alia through ‘access’ and ‘justice’. Although the questions involved may not be new, the answers I try to give reverses received wisdom as to who must learn from whom.506
