This book will consist of a tightly organized, but thematically wide-ranging, set of interventions in an emerging multi-disciplinary debate on Marxist approaches to the capitalist state. In their most general form, the basic aims of the volume are threefold: (a) to critically examine the state, and its juridico-political practices and institutions, in light of both long-term and immediate concerns; (b) to rethink the conceptual frameworks and theoretical dilemmas of Marxist state theory, with an eye to contemporary struggles, movements, and developments; and (c) to spark renewed interest in state theory within the broad Marxist tradition, demonstrating its explanatory power and the critical purchase of the analytical tools it puts on offer. The contributors draw from a range of different tendencies, approaches, and bodies of literature, from within the Marxist tradition of the critique of political economy and also beyond it.

In the early 1990s the then European Community imposed for the first time a set of economic restrictions against a specific entity: the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola. Since then, the individualisation of sanctions has become entrenched, these so-called 'smart' sanctions have proliferated, their targets and scope of application have significantly expanded, and they operate in an increasingly juridified environment. This book aims to shed light on the constitutive dynamics and causes of these developments, with a focus on the juridification of individual sanctions at the European level. To this end it first revisits the phenomenon of individualisation - moving beyond the conventional narrative that individual sanctions emerged because of humanitarian and effectiveness concerns - and situates the 'smarting' of sanctions within the context of broader structural transformations characterised by the consolidation of the global neoliberal order. Second, the book explores why the role of law has been so pronounced in the European context by unearthing the connections between EU law and capitalist order building.

The Crisis behind the Euro-Crisis encourages dialogue among scholars across the social sciences in an attempt to challenge the narrative that regarded the Euro-crisis as an exceptional event. It is suggested instead that the Euro-crisis, along with the subsequent crises the EU has come to face, was merely symptomatic of deeper systemic cracks. This book's aim is to uncover that hidden systemic crisis - the 'crisis behind the Euro-crisis'. Under this reading it emerges that what needs to be questioned is not only the allegedly purely economic character of the Euro-crisis, but, more fundamentally, its very classification as an 'emergency'. Instead, the Euro-crisis needs to be regarded as expressive of a chronic, dysfunctional, but 'normal' condition of the EU. By following this line of analysis, this book illuminates not only the causes of contemporary turbulences in the European project, but perhaps the 'true' nature of the EU itself.

The Crisis behind the Euro-Crisis encourages dialogue among scholars across the social sciences in an attempt to challenge the narrative that regarded the Euro-crisis as an exceptional event. It is suggested instead that the Euro-crisis, along with the subsequent crises the EU has come to face, was merely symptomatic of deeper systemic cracks. This book's aim is to uncover that hidden systemic crisis - the 'crisis behind the Euro-crisis'. Under this reading it emerges that what needs to be questioned is not only the allegedly purely economic character of the Euro-crisis, but, more fundamentally, its very classification as an 'emergency'. Instead, the Euro-crisis needs to be regarded as expressive of a chronic, dysfunctional, but 'normal' condition of the EU. By following this line of analysis, this book illuminates not only the causes of contemporary turbulences in the European project, but perhaps the 'true' nature of the EU itself.

In the early 1990s the then European Community imposed for the first time a set of economic restrictions against a specific entity: the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola. Since then, the individualisation of sanctions has become entrenched, these so-called 'smart' sanctions have proliferated, their targets and scope of application have significantly expanded, and they operate in an increasingly juridified environment. This book aims to shed light on the constitutive dynamics and causes of these developments, with a focus on the juridification of individual sanctions at the European level. To this end it first revisits the phenomenon of individualisation - moving beyond the conventional narrative that individual sanctions emerged because of humanitarian and effectiveness concerns - and situates the 'smarting' of sanctions within the context of broader structural transformations characterised by the consolidation of the global neoliberal order. Second, the book explores why the role of law has been so pronounced in the European context by unearthing the connections between EU law and capitalist order building.