It is contested in specifi c terms, namely which set of properties (values, heritage, or vocation) would uniquely identify Europe? <...> Major ramifi cations allegedly follow from whatever stance taken in this debate, e.g. with regard to external relations (should the Union come to include Turkey?) and internal institutionalisation (is there a European demos?). <...> This paper challenges this common bias, taking a cue from Merleau-Ponty’s distinction between ‘Europe en reprйsentation’ and ‘Europe en acte’. <...> Secondly, it revisits the incisive critique of a representationalist view on Europe which Nietzsche confronted us with. <...> Here I fi rst address Nietzsche’s explicit, but scattered, notes; then I explore how the same themes are played out in what I consider to be one of the greatest novels on ‘Europe’ of the 20th century, Musil’s The Man without Qualities). <...> Thirdly, the paper argues that the alternative reading of identity in terms of ‘Europe en acte’ allows us to deploy the myth of Europa in prospect rather than retrospect, to bear in mind the multiple ways in which various polities within European lost their innocence, and to stand united in an attitude of prudence with regard to at least three major praxeis of the future: technology, economics and the rule of law. <...> All rights reserved * Corresponding author E-mail address: G.C.G.J.vanRoermund@uvt.nl # 235 # of Willem Witteveen law and humanities. than a national concern. <...> That these two qualities form the helices of the Law School’s DNA becomes particularly (though not exclusively) visible in – Bert van Roermund. <...> Eastbound – Westbound: Re-reading the Myth of Europa the Comparative Law Department of the School, where I have always found a curious, critical, and hospitable environment of students and faculty. <...> Witteveen would trust that these concerns would be no secret to our Russian colleagues and students, and he would have challenged us to discuss them in all openness. <...> But he would also acknowledge that such discussions require an attitude of mutual confi dence and honesty between East and West. <...> Among them were my near colleague Willem Witteveen, his wife Lidwien Heerkens and their daughter Marit. <...> An expert in legal theory, in particular law and literature, and founding father of the Liberal <...>