Untangling the Legal Infrastructure of Schengen

(Series Information) European Papers - A Journal on Law and Integration, 2024 9(1), 157-177 | Article | (Table of Contents) I. Introduction. – II. Thinking infrastructurally about Schengen. – III. Schengen as legal infrastructure. – IV. Infrastructural connections beyond the EU. – V. Conclusion. | (Abstract) Human mobility has always been a pre-condition for human development, yet few issues today remain subject to such elaborate legal restrictions. The Schengen acquis is exemplary of this as a composite network of legalities that extend over a broad range of human activities. This Article pioneers legal infrastructures as an analytical tool to bring into focus law’s fundamental role in shaping human (im)mobility. Section II sets the theoretical frame by conceptualizing Schengen as a legal infrastructure through a brief tour through the scholarly field of infrastructural studies. Section III then traces the emergence of the Schengen legal infrastructure through historical iterations of physicality, accretion, and entanglement. Section IV further shows how Schengen has transformed to actively mediate human mobility and normative frameworks also outside the European space. Part IV concludes briefly on the implications of our analysis for understanding Schengen as a cornerstone of European mobility law.