INTRODUCTION: A workshop aiming to narrate the history of EU Law took place in November 2012 at a critical time for the very existence of the Union and its role as a global actor.' On the one hand, the current financial crisis is weakening some of the foundations and values that, in the last sixty years, EU lawyers, judges, and scholars have relied on. On the other hand, the U.S. government is pursuing a Transatlantic Free Trade and Investment Agreement with the EU, aimed at creating a Western bloc to resist the rising Chinese power.' The fascination of current EU law scholarship lies in either one or the other camp. For instance, by.reflecting on the regulatory and political failures of the EU, scholars have exposed European integration as legitimated by a messianic project relying on the promise of a better future, rather than on a solid constitutional and democratic culture.' In contrast, by praising the EU as a global actor, others have shed light on the Union's unique identity and its counterhegemonic role vis a vis the United States.