The contributions to this Special Issue of the German Law Journal originate from a meeting in July 2004 at the European University Institute, which was convened following a disappointing experience. The participants – lawyers, historians, political scientists – had co-operated intensively in the preparation of a project on "The Shadows of the Past(s) over the Construction of Europe" which they had submitted to the Volkswagen Stiftung. Although the foundation acknowledged the core aspirations and importance of its individual components, our application was, however, criticized for its overly broad scope and alleged lack of coherence. Should we, however, retain our loose multi-disciplinary, multi-issue and multi-national exploratory approach? Or, should we instead seek to tighten up the whole enterprise and explain what form of common result we would like to deliver? What was planned as a debate on these alternatives developed into enormously interesting, sometimes breath-taking discussions. At the end, we felt that we were able to articulate what we had more intuitively sought for, namely, a formula that would link our concern about European past(s) with our concern for Europe's present and future.

The past had been the object of the proceeding project. The "constitutionalizing moment" to which the European integration project responded was the sum of the atrocities of the twentieth century in general, and the persecution and extermination of European Jews in particular. The post-war effort to create a European community derives its strength and legitimacy from the dignity of this response. However, this legacy is not merely precious, it is also precarious. We must be aware of as well as ashamed of and on guards against the "darker legacies of law in Europe": the involvement of law and lawyers in the Untaten and the atrocities committed and both the weaknesses in good constitutions and the fragility of seemingly stable political cultures. It is one thing to acknowledge the importance of such a "working through the past" but quite...