@article{2026:beeten:festschrif,
title = {Festschrift or Fiction? Omissions, Gaps and Blind Spots in 70 Years of EU Law},
year = {2026},
note = {This article interrogates the celebratory narrative advanced in 70
Years of EU Law – A Union for Its Citizens. It focuses on those
aspects of European Union (EU) law’s history that are omitted from
the narrative or only appear in a heavily redacted form. Specifically,
this article shows how key moments of crisis, contestation, and
exclusion are left out in an attempt to sustain a highly idealised
depiction of EU law. In doing so, it argues that 70 Years of EU Law
overstates both the centrality of EU law as well as the benefit it
offers to EU citizens. This argument is developed through an analysis
of three central themes of 70 Years of EU Law, namely, the
presentation of EU law as the driving force of integration, the
invocation of Article 2 Treaty on European Union (TEU) values as a
renewed integrative principle, and the construction of citizens as
beneficiaries of the legal order. Ultimately, this article advocates
for a more reflexive understanding of EU law by situating its
institutional successes alongside its structural blind spots and
failures.},
journal = {Zeitschrift für ausländisches öffentliches Recht und Völkerrecht / Heidelberg Journal of International Law},
pages = {167--196},
author = {Beeten, Jacob van de},
volume = {86},
number = {1}
}