This symposium brings together a group of legal scholars who participated in a research project called European Society. The project originates in a meeting of the two of us and a mutual engagement with our texts. In 2022, Loïc Azoulai published a short piece on ‘The Law of European Society’ in the Common Market Law Review. The same year, Armin von Bogdandy published a book under the title Strukturwandel des öffentlichen Rechts. Entstehung und Demokratisierung der europäischen Gesellschaft (Suhrkamp), translated in English as The Emergence of European Society through Public Law (Oxford University Press 2024). At the time of publication, we were unaware of each other’s work – evidence, perhaps, that the theme was in the air. Owing to our differences in orientation and style, we decided to set up a research group, with the aim of providing a new account of the experience of Europe in the current context, marked by disorientation and polarisation, but also widely shared calls for ‘more Europe’. Europe’s current condition and its future possibilities are deeply affected by what many have classified as ‘crises’ (financial and economic crisis, migration, rule of law, external threats), but also what some Europeans even experience as ‘catastrophes’ (climate change, digital revolution, pandemic, war). The original idea was that the concept of ‘European society’ might help to get a better picture of the Europeans’ situation as well as ideas for the future course.

Other than the two of us, the group gathered Marcin Baranski, Hauke Brunkhorst, Johanna Croon-Gestefeld, Floris de Witte, Alina Isakova, Niels Graaf, Sabine Mair, Grégoire Mallard, Antonio Marzal, Jennifer Orlando-Salling, Silvia Steininger, and Giacomo Tagiuri. It seemed to us that, as much as it is intriguing, and as it is now widely used institutionally and academically, the concept of European society lacked depth and consistency. Therefore, we decided to engage in an investigation, from different disciplines (history, political science, social theory, law), of the origins and genealogy, the uses and meanings, as well as the limitations and shortcomings of this concept. We also explored some of the methodological implications of the use of this concept in European studies, relying on archival work, discourse theory, case studies, doctrinal analysis, cultural study of law, and critical approaches to law. Some of the results of this collective endeavour are presented in this symposium.

Our point of departure is clear. We want to acknowledge the quiet yet significant role the term ‘European society’ plays in the foundational texts of the European Union. While the Treaty on European Union famously commits the Union to an ‘ever closer union among the peoples of Europe’ (Article 1), it also refers, since 2009, to ‘a society in which pluralism, non-discrimination, tolerance, justice, solidarity and equality between women and men prevail’ (Article 2). These references suggest that the idea of society – beyond institutions, markets, or governance structures – has a place for understanding the EU and Europe more broadly. Yet, as the concept remains underdeveloped, our first ambition is to understand it in the terms set by EU law. This project relies on the observation that the notion of society has long held a central place in European intellectual traditions, spanning fields as diverse as political theory, sociology, law, philosophy, and economics. But it is also fully aware of the need to place this concept in its current socio-historical context. These essays address, in various ways, the present juncture, that of the troubling coincidence between, on the one hand, the historically unprecedented intensity of interdependence between European societies, unfolding simultaneously in the legal, economic, technical, technological, cultural, scientific and institutional spheres, and, on the other hand, a state of polarisation between social groups within these societies, which is just as intense, being simultaneously political, ideological, cultural and cognitive. We explore how European society as a whole is shaped by complex webs of interdependence but also marked by divisions, tensions, and inequalities that test its cohesion.

We have foregone the idea of offering a single definition or unified theory of European society. Instead, we aim at opening new avenues for research, bringing into conversation perspectives that are often kept apart. The reconstructive approach which develops the concept of European society with a view to providing ‘new conceptual stability for Europe’ (von Bogdandy) as well as the critical approach which aims at foregrounding the non-universalistic and potentially alienating effects of the concept (Steininger and Orlando). The perspective about the present development of the concept of European society in EU law with its neo-colonial undertones (Marzal) as well as the perspective from the past which finds its origins in the establishment of the ‘Société des Nations’, in the concern of European states for the improvement of individuals’ condition, but also their colonial legacies and entrenched exploitative practices (Mallard). The focus on the political effect of the concept of European society, resulting in the legal construction of a ‘societal ideal’ based on Article 2 TEU (von Bogdandy), as well as the exploration of its practical effects in terms of forms of socialisation and lived experiences of individuals and social groups (Azoulai; de Witte).

Amidst our diverse and conflicting approaches, we resolved that this symposium should contribute to a thorough discussion about how European society might be understood and researched through, how it has been imagined or constructed over time, and how it might inform our acting and thinking about Europe. As a whole, this symposium must be read as a complex and ambivalent object, simultaneously offering opposite responses towards the same issues concerning our conditions of existence and coexistence in Europe. It would be a huge achievement if it were considered as a contribution to European society reflecting itself.