Nordic Cooperation and the European Union : 50 Years of Legal Integration

Nordic Cooperation and the European Union: 50 Years of Legal Integration explores the transformation of Nordic cooperation over the past half-century, shaped by the dynamics of European integration.Initially rooted in informal, intergovernmental dialogue among Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden, Nordic cooperation now finds itself amidst deeper developments taking place in EU law and EEA law.After the Second World War, Europe embraced binding legal commitments vis-à-vis individuals and each other, beginning with human rights under the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), and later economic integration through the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) and then the European Economic Communities (EEC), which is today, the EU, and by extension, the European Economic Area (EEA).For the Nordic states, such developments have created dual loyalties: to each other, in the form of cooperation; but also, to wider Europe, in the form of integration.Given the differentiated for