ABSTRACT
This chapter presents some more general reflections on the role of legal integration in the process of identifying the European Union (EU). It explores important contention of the Integration through Law School, namely that commonalities between different legal systems must be traced 'in the relationship between law and society, in the understanding of the instrumental character of law in ordering and reacting to societal exigencies'. The chapter concerns this positing of law in relation to society as a means to the end of European integration. It discusses one of the core assumptions of the Integration to Law School, namely that the integration of and through law in the EU is instrumental to the gradual convergence of the European Member States. The chapter analyses in more detail the notion of legal integration 'in the relationship between law and society' at the level of the nation-state.
