Once in a while, I write stuff. In order to make it accessible to everyone, I publish it so that others are able to follow my thoughts:
The Missing Grammar of EU Law:
An Explicit Norm Priority Architecture for the European Single Market
Date Written: March 21, 2026
Abstract
Persistent dysfunction in the implementation of European Union law does not stem primarily from normative complexity, but from the systematic absence of an explicit architecture governing how conflicting norms interact. Drawing on HLA Hart, Niklas Luhmann, and Jürgen Habermas, this article argues that EU governance suffers from a structural paradox: highly formalised primary rules paired with implicit, inaccessible secondary rules for conflict resolution. To resolve this, the article introduces the Explicit Norm Priority Grammar (ENPG)-a formalised second-order rule architecture that resolves collisions through explicit metarules , conceptually analogous to Pāṇini’s Aṣṭādhyāyī (4th century BCE). The ENPG distinguishes between norm collision, norm stacking, and norm fragmentation, providing algorithmic solutions for the former two. Empirically, eight case studies-ranging from supply chain trilemmas to AI Act gridlocks-demonstrate how this missing grammar contributes substantially to the EU Single Market’s €644 billion untapped annual potential. The article concludes with a specification hypothesis for an implementation layer (EU Governance OS / EGOS) and addresses the political economy of resistance, explaining why administrative friction persists despite its economic costs.