Legal risks in EU social law

Abstract

This chapter aims at applying the new understanding of legal risks to the field of European Union (EU) social law. Understanding “Legal Risks in EU Law” implies to turn upside down the usual legal perspective on a given field of law. Instead of taking a given legal object and describing it, this is a new scientific and practical approach on EU law based on a prospective analysis, which can lead to a rationalised law-making process for the EU institutions and its partners. In other words, legal risk management may be introduced through two approaches: Social risks may be solved by the law, but the law itself may create legal risks. This approach calls for a study of the context and the actors: On the one hand, it is the multiplication of legal orders which leads to legal risks in the field of EU social law (1). On the other hand, it is the actors’ choices and first of all the choice of the judge of Luxembourg (2).