Conference 'United in Diversity?'

Mutual recognition has been described as the principle of European law that most embodies the Union’s motto of being ‘United in Diversity’. Its strength lies in its ability to support the Union’s ambition of pursuing ‘an ever closer Union among the peoples of Europe’ via the non-hierarchical steering, coordination, and cooperation of the Member States across a wide and varied array of policy fields characterised by acute heterogeneity legally and politically. It allows the Union to secure unity without imposing uniformity and facilitate diversity without leading to fragmentation. 

Yet ironically, the study of mutual recognition is itself characterised by acute fragmentation and heterogeneity. Existing research on mutual recognition is siloed not only between disciplines but also between policy areas and legal fields. Legal scholars predominantly conceptualised mutual recognition as a legal rule, whereas political scientists view it as a form of political compromise in the form of a governance mode. Differences exist not just between disciplines but within them. Constitutional scholars view mutual recognition as a fundamental principle of the Union’s legal order. By contrast, for those working in risk regulation, for instance, the understanding of its application is based predominantly upon secondary legislation created by the Union’s political institutions, not constitutional law. 

While emerging from the freedom of goods via the Court of Justice’s decision in Cassis de Dijon, the principle has today proliferated beyond the bounds of the internal market into almost all areas of Union law and policy. This proliferation is largely the result of politics. The Delors Commission’s White Paper on completing the internal market marked a radical new approach to European integration, making a move away from the harmonisation of laws to the mutual recognition of laws, which was supported by the underlying logic of the Court’s decision in Cassis. As a result, mutual recognition is increasingly embedded in secondary legislation today, creating new pressures for European integration as different rules, regulatory approaches, values, and even social norms interact and even conflict. In turn, mutual recognition regulatory schemes have fostered the ‘circulation’ of administrative decisions throughout the EU, generating acts with transnational effects and thereby challenging the territoriality of administrative law. These regulatory structures generate horizontal interactions between national (administrative) legal orders which may clash with EU fundamental rights and effective judicial protection.

This event, organised by Rónán Riordan and Mariolina Eliantonio, brings together leading experts to explore how mutual recognition increasingly shapes European integration. The goal of the conference is to move away from the siloed approach to studying mutual recognition, which dominates its study today. Instead, the conference aims to look beyond our individual fields of research, encouraging a comprehensive overview of mutual recognition across all areas of Union law via an interdisciplinary and cross-policy approach. 

The conference brings together scholars, policymakers, practitioners, and judges to explore mutual recognition applications within the European Union. The conference, therefore, explores mutual recognition not through disciplines or policy areas, rather, instead, it considers its implications via ‘themes’. What does mutual recognition mean as a constitutional principle vs a governance mode, and how is it applied in risk regulation vs fundamental rights or climate protection? What are the broader implications of mutual recognition for European integration in a Union increasingly confronted with the challenges of being ‘United in Diversity’. 

The ultimate goal of the conference is to lay the groundwork for the creation of the first-ever Handbook on Mutual Recognition in Union Law, which will provide a comprehensive and authoritative reference point that breaks down the existing silos of knowledge. Deepening our understanding of mutual recognition as a mode of European governance, assessing its effectiveness, and considering its limitations for achieving an ‘ever closer Union’.