the europeanization of legal cultures stories, there are still grounds for optimism. For Wilhelmsson, many stories have links to European developments. In other fields of law, Europeanization and its impacts and challenges were discussed. To public law scholars, the jurisprudence of the Court of EuropeanHumanRights was a source of inspiration, and legal historians debated the European past of theius commune.4 These discussions brought Thomas and me together: we founded a graduate school and a research project, and joined others in proposing the Centre of Excellence in Foundations of European law and Polity Research funded by the Academy of Finland. We engaged in careful, optimistic discussions about a European civil code. TheEUeven proposed a European constitution. Among scholars, a belief – or at least a hope – existed that common concepts, terms, and principles would help further legal unification and harmonization in Europe. This was the founding idea of the bottom-up approach, which challenged the other top-down approach, where the increasing power of EUregulation causes fragmentation in national legal systems. At any rate, the European ethos was strong. In Wilhelmsson’s final lecture there was no talk of optimism or the European ethos. All the big projects have failed; no one believes in a European civil code; no one likes to talk about a European constitution. Brexit is not only about economics and politics, but about the role and impact of the European institutions. The European Court of Justice has been criticized because of ‘too active’ an intrusion into British national affairs. It is easy to agree that there is a lack of optimism. Still, I would like to move on to discuss today’s legal developments in Europe in a little more depth. It is not fair to analyse legal ‘Europeanization’ only by looking at EU regulation and decision-making, or at academic harmonization projects. Developments within national legal orders ought to be studied. Ad4 For example, the booklet by Pia Letto-Vanamo: Oikeuden Eurooppa(Europe of law) (Helsinki: Helsingin yliopisto, rikos- ja prosessioikeuden sekä oikeuden yleistieteiden laitos, 1995). 279 The convergence of national legal systems
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