Book Review: Thomas Christiansen and Emil Kirchner (eds.), Europe in Change: Committee Governance in the European Union (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2000, 185 pp., £40.00 hbk.)
| Author | Mark Rhinard |
| DOI | 10.1177/03058298000290030909 |
| Date | 01 December 2000 |
| Published date | 01 December 2000 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Book Reviews
941
this, international c riminal law maintains the traditi onal sexist view of woman as
victims and main tains focus on their traditional roles as mothe rs and wive s.
The Bo undaries of Interna tional Law begins to correct an important oversight in
internatio nal legal scholars hip. As the first bo ok-length fe minist contribution to
internatio nal law, Charleswort h and Chinki n’s wo rk presents a feminist critiq ue of
international law in a coherent and thoroughly researched manner. The volume
deserves thoughtful discussion among international legal scholars and should
promote feminist que stioning of international law’s most centra l co ncepts. The
authors have provided more than enough provocative criticism of contemporary
internatio nal legal scho larship to generate this very qu estioning. It should also serve
as a roadmap to future femin ist scholarship in internatio nal law.
AMY E. ECKHERT
Amy E. Eckhert is a PhD Candidate at the Graduate School of International
Studies at the Un iversity of Denver
Thomas Christiansen and Emil K irchner (eds.), Europe in Change: Committee
Governance in the European Union (Manchest er: M anchester University Press,
2000, 185 pp., £40.00 hbk.).
One of the enduring arguments in the debate over the future of European
integratio n cautio ns that before we can understand where th e EU is going, we must
first determine precisely what it is. Europe in Change marks a mileston e in this
endeavour. Christia nsen and Kirchner lead a rare, co ncerted effort to shed light on a
little-kno wn but influential pa rt of European de cision-making: t he EU committee
system. Yet wh ereas previous books on the subject h ave been content with
descriptive and tec hnical approach es, this vo lume blends a mixture of so lid
empirical evid ence with useful analytical approa ches in a wa y which makes it a key
reference for scho lars in all European research fields.
The underlying a rgument is that co mmittees, includi ng Commission expert
groups, Cou ncil working parties, ‘comit ology’ committees, and ‘g rand’ committees
like the Eco nomic and Social Co mmittee and Committee o f the Regions, are both a
necessary institutional feature and a vivid example o f the EU’s particular mod e of
governance . In the former instance, commi ttees provide the critical arena in which
ongoing co-operation, communication and co-ordination take place. In the latter,
committee g overnance is an ex pression of the ‘fun damental nature of t he European
project’ (p. 8). Committees bring together a broa d array of actors from varying
levels of government and the private sector, conduct business b y a functio nally
specialised a genda, make decision s b ased on consensu s and co-operation, and
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