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The Legal Mind of the Internal Market: A Governmentality Perspective on the Judicialization of Monitoring Practices
Author(s) -
Vifell Åsa Casula,
Sjögren Ebba
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
jcms: journal of common market studies
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.54
H-Index - 90
eISSN - 1468-5965
pISSN - 0021-9886
DOI - 10.1111/jcms.12110
Subject(s) - governmentality , normative , corporate governance , commission , european union , political science , european commission , perspective (graphical) , law and economics , public administration , business , sociology , public relations , law , computer science , politics , finance , economic policy , artificial intelligence
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 S olvit, a Commission‐initiated network tasked with informal resolution of misapplications of internal market directives by national authorities. All Member States must operate a S olvit centre within their administrations. Using a governmentality approach, the article investigates the normative underpinnings of the technologies deployed by S olvit and the experts which operate them. A survey study of the S olvit network shows the development of an EU identity and a cognitive judicialization which contributes to a depoliticization of issues. This allows S olvit 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.