Project leaders: Simon Deakin, Catherine Barnard
Research Student: Richard Hobbs
Project dates: 2002-04
Funding: European Commission Fifth Framework Programme

Update on progress: July 2006

Aims and Objectives

This project was funded by the 5th Framework Programme of the European Commission and involved collaboration between the CBR and a network of other European universities coordinated by t`he Centre for Legal Philosophy, Catholic University of Louvain. The CBR's involvement focused on tensions developing at European level between the economic freedoms guaranteed by the EC Treaty (including free movement for goods, persons and capital, and freedom of establishment for enterprises) and the protection of fundamental social rights.

Results and Dissemination

Case studies were carried out of the interaction between economic and social interests in the case law of the European Court of Justice and of national-level courts, and of the implementation of European Community law in the UK (focusing on the area of working time). Following seminars held in Paris in December 2003 and Cambridge in March 2004, a book representing the work of the project was completed and will be published in 2005: De Schutter, O. and Deakin, S. (eds) Social Rights and Market Forces: Is Open Coordination the Future for European Employment and Social Policy? Brussels: Bruylant.