Legal integration: Theorizing the legal dimension of European integration

Drawing on the dominant themes of political science and legal literature to interrogate their images of law and courts, it is suggested that an instrumentalist image of law is often projected in which law is uncritically constructed as a medium of integration. The article argues that law as a medium must confront law as an institution which shapes external attempts at steering but also structures the element of agency possessed by legal actors, including the ECJ. The changing nature of EU governance is also highlighted, requiring us to provide more adequate accounts of complex relationships between EU law and politics.