Trust and the Principle of Mutual Trust in EU Law

Trust and the Principle of Mutual Trust in EU Law This article examines the principle of mutual trust in European Union (EU) law – a nascent legal principle gradually trying to find its place in the EU legal and structural architecture and perhaps even in its constitutional hierarchy. In addition to the commonplace exploration of the principle from a doctrinal standpoint, the work investigates whether the way in which mutual trust has come to function in the Union legal order has the potential to foster actual trust in the EU and between actors and subjects in the EU legal order. In order to do so, it draws on trust theories proposed by a wide range of social sciences. The article finds that the prevailing conception of mutual trust as a broad EU law and fundamental rights compliance presumption fails to satisfy even the objective parameters of trust as a concept, meaning that the contexts in which mutual trust is raised are usually not situations which would require an attitude of trust but rather compliance, legality, accountability and judicial control. The way in which mutual trust has come to operate in the EU is more akin to an undemocratic institutionalisation of trust than the institutionalisation of distrust, the latter being more typical of free and democratic societies. In addition to its critique of the current functioning and understanding of the principle of mutual trust, the article offers novel insights towards rethinking and reconstructing the principle in order to better achieve the aspirations to create more trust in the EU legal order.