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While proponents of new institutionalism are engaged in a conceptual bidding war, this paper sets out to reintegrate empirical data into debates often disconnected from facts. It tests a part of this analytical framework on an in-depth case study of the “working time directive” review. In this case, policymakers faced many obstacles blocking the revision of the directive, even though they unanimously wanted to reconsider this text that had taken an unexpected direction as a result of several decisions of the Court of Justice of the European Union. This paper shows that both the tools of rational choice institutionalism and those of historical institutionalism—often conceptually opposed in the literature—are helpful to analyze this situation. Therefore, it emphasizes the heuristic interest of using the framework of new institutionalism in a pragmatic and not dogmatic way.