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Author: Signe Rehling Larsen
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0192603019
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 224
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Book Description
From the start of the European integration process, one question has puzzled scholars: what type of political association is the European Union? In absence of an agreed upon response, most scholars have suggested that the European Union is 'sui generis'. This book challenges the sui generis thesis by demonstrating that the EU is not a unique form of association, but rather a federal union of states, or what this book calls a federation. This is a discrete form of political association on par with, though differentiated from, political modernity's two other main forms, namely the state and the empire. The federation cannot be understood on the basis of the general theory of the state or its concept of sovereignty. The 'statist' imaginary still dominates both the debates on federalism and the EU, meaning that all federal policies are either seen as 'confederal' associations of sovereign states or sovereign federal states. This book challenges this binary by demonstrating that the federation is not a 'super state' but a discrete political form with its own constitutional theory. It is characterized by a double political existence, a lack of internal hierarchy, and the internal absence, contestation, or repression of sovereignty. This book details the key aspects of federal constitutional theory and how this theory accounts for the EU's constitutional form as well as the crises it has faced in recent years. This book is broken into five chapters that cover the introduction to federalism, origins of the EU, state transformation and teleology, unity in diversity, and emergency rule without a sovereign. This book draws on a variety of literatures and historical material to help the reader develop a critical understanding of 'constitutional myths' and the theory of federalism.
Author: Signe Rehling Larsen
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0192603019
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 224
Get Book
Book Description
From the start of the European integration process, one question has puzzled scholars: what type of political association is the European Union? In absence of an agreed upon response, most scholars have suggested that the European Union is 'sui generis'. This book challenges the sui generis thesis by demonstrating that the EU is not a unique form of association, but rather a federal union of states, or what this book calls a federation. This is a discrete form of political association on par with, though differentiated from, political modernity's two other main forms, namely the state and the empire. The federation cannot be understood on the basis of the general theory of the state or its concept of sovereignty. The 'statist' imaginary still dominates both the debates on federalism and the EU, meaning that all federal policies are either seen as 'confederal' associations of sovereign states or sovereign federal states. This book challenges this binary by demonstrating that the federation is not a 'super state' but a discrete political form with its own constitutional theory. It is characterized by a double political existence, a lack of internal hierarchy, and the internal absence, contestation, or repression of sovereignty. This book details the key aspects of federal constitutional theory and how this theory accounts for the EU's constitutional form as well as the crises it has faced in recent years. This book is broken into five chapters that cover the introduction to federalism, origins of the EU, state transformation and teleology, unity in diversity, and emergency rule without a sovereign. This book draws on a variety of literatures and historical material to help the reader develop a critical understanding of 'constitutional myths' and the theory of federalism.
Author: John Erik Fossum
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
ISBN: 1442208570
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 316
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Book Description
This authoritative study considers all aspects of the European Union's distinctive constitution since its inception. A unique political animal, the EU has given rise to important constitutional conundrums and paradoxes that the authors explore in detail. Their analysis illuminates the distinctive features of the Union's pluralist constitutional construct and provides the tools to understand the Union's development, especially during the Laeken (2001–2005) and Lisbon (2007–2009) processes of constitutional reform and spells out the parallels between the European and the Canadian constitutional experiences. Offering the first history of European constitutional law that is both theoretically informed and normatively grounded, the authors have developed an original theory of constitutional synthesis that will be essential reading for all readers interested in the process and theory of European integration.
Author: Amaryllis Verhoeven
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 9789041118721
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 0
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Book Description
European integration confronts us with the limits of current constitutional and democratic language. The way out of this impasse will only appear through a refinement of what we consider the European Union to be as a political entity and of our concepts of democracy. In this challenging and thoughtful new book Professor Verhoeven recognizes the continuity of this project with social contract theory and the federal ideal --and uncovers the specific aspects of democracy and constitutionalism the EU has already embraced -- while showing how the terms and presuppositions of those persistent conceptual frameworks must be fundamentally revised. At the root of these necessary revisions lies the irreversible onset of multiculturalism and globalisation, twin challenges that force us to reconsider issues of sovereignty and self-governance. rofessor Verhoeven does not neglect the much-debated issues at the centre of her topic. Her analysis extends to such critiques as the view of the European constitution as a Court-led process of vertical integration, the meaning of EU citizenship, variability in EU decision-making procedures, the concept of institutional balance, territorial differences in the application of EU law, the whole area of delegated rule-making and the relationship between the European and national legal orders. As a thorough investigation of how democracy and constitutionalism can be reconceptualised in order to meet the challenge of European integration, The European Union in Search of a Democratic and Constitutional Theory will greatly reward the attention of lawyers, policymakers, and scholars in the field.
Author: Turkuler Isiksel
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 019875907X
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 305
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Book Description
Through a critical appraisal of the European Union and its legal system, this book evaluates the extent to which constitutionalism as an empirical idea and normative ideal can be adapted to institutions beyond the state.
Author: Leslie Friedman Goldstein
Publisher: JHU Press
ISBN: 0801875684
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 257
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Book Description
Addresses why, when, and how sovereign states give up some of their sovereignity to form a larger union Starting from the premise that the system of independent, sovereign, territorial states, which was the subject of political science and international relations studies in the twentieth century, has entered a transition toward something new, noted political scientist Leslie F. Goldstein examines the development of the European Union by blending comparative and historical institutionalist approaches. She argues that the most useful framework for understanding the kinds of "supra-state" formations that are increasingly apparent in the beginning of the third millennium is comparative analysis of the formative epochs of federations of the past that formed voluntarily from previously independent states. In Constituting Federal Sovereignty: The European Union in Comparative Context Goldstein identifies three significant predecessors to today's European Union: the Dutch Union of the 17th century, the United States of America from the 1787 Constitution to the Civil War, and the first half-century of the modern Swiss federation, beginning in 1848. She examines the processes by which federalization took place, what made for its success, and what contributed to its problems. She explains why resistance to federal authority, although similar in kind, varied significantly in degree in the cases examined. And she explores the crucial roles played by such factors as sovereignty-honoring elements within the institutional structure of the federation, the circumstances of its formation (revolt against distant empire versus aftermath of war among member states), and notably, the internal culture of respect for the rule of law in the member states.
Author: Lynn Dobson
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134297041
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 256
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Book Description
In June 2003, the Convention on the Future of Europe released what may become the Constitution of the European Union. This timely volume provides one of the first critical assessments of the draft Constitution from the vantage point of political theory. The work combines detailed institutional analysis with normative political theory, bringing theoretical analysis to bear on the pressing issues of institutional design answered - or bypassed - by the draft Constitution. It addresses several themes that play out differently in federal arrangements than in unitary political orders: * European values, especially the legitimate role of alleged common values * liberty and powers - how does the draft Constitution address competing normative preferences? * the European interest: the noble words regarding common European objectives and values are often muddled or conflated, different actors intending quite different things. Several chapters contribute to clarifying the different senses of these terms.
Author: Carl Schmitt
Publisher: Duke University Press
ISBN: 9780822390589
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 492
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Book Description
Carl Schmitt’s magnum opus, Constitutional Theory, was originally published in 1928 and has been in print in German ever since. This volume makes Schmitt’s masterpiece of comparative constitutionalism available to English-language readers for the first time. Schmitt is considered by many to be one of the most original—and, because of his collaboration with the Nazi party, controversial—political thinkers of the twentieth century. In Constitutional Theory, Schmitt provides a highly distinctive and provocative interpretation of the Weimar Constitution. At the center of this interpretation lies his famous argument that the legitimacy of a constitution depends on a sovereign decision of the people. In addition to being subject to long-standing debate among legal and political theorists in Western Europe and the United States, this theory of constitution-making as decision has profoundly influenced constitutional theorists and designers in Asia, Latin America, and Eastern Europe. Constitutional Theory is a significant departure from Schmitt’s more polemical Weimar-era works not just in terms of its moderate tone. Through a comparative history of constitutional government in Europe and the United States, Schmitt develops an understanding of liberal constitutionalism that makes room for a strong, independent state. This edition includes an introduction by Jeffrey Seitzer and Christopher Thornhill outlining the cultural, intellectual, and political contexts in which Schmitt wrote Constitutional Theory; they point out what is distinctive about the work, examine its reception in the postwar era, and consider its larger theoretical ramifications. This volume also contains extensive editorial notes and a translation of the Weimar Constitution.
Author: Bojan Kovacevic
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317138996
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 230
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Book Description
The hidden federal features of the European Union help explain the challenges of legitimacy, democracy and freedom that face an unfinished political community. Ideas about federalism and the reality of existing federal states cannot be sharply divided in an analysis of the EU’s multilevel political order, but so far, both scholars and major decision makers have shown interest only in the normal functioning of federal systems: ignoring the dilemma of the federation’s legitimate authority has resulted in an existential crisis for the EU which has become ever more manifest over recent years. This book employs a combination of political philosophy and political science, of federal philosophic ideas and their traces in real federal institutions, in order to achieve the task of understanding the federal features of the EU governance system. The first part of the work focuses on building an appropriate theoretical framework to explain the new meanings attached to familiar notions of democracy, legitimacy and citizenship in the context of a political community like the EU. In the second part the federal features of the EU’s political system are examined in comparison to other current and historical federal perspectives like the US, Switzerland, Yugoslavia and Germany. Through an analysis of the hidden federal aspects of the EU and the links between hidden federalism and the EU’s legitimacy crisis, this book reveals the patterns that should be avoided and gives us guidelines that should be followed if the EU is to become democratic and politically united without jeopardising the state character of its members.
Author: Joakim Nergelius
Publisher: Europa Law Publishing
ISBN: 9789089520623
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 140
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Book Description
This book discusses the future steps in European integration, which are to be taken after the likely entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty in 2010. Against the background of the drafting of this new treaty, and the constitutional discussion within EU law during the last decades, the book questions whether the Treaty and leading EU law theorists have really grasped and addressed the true future challenges of European integration. Instead of always trying to balance supra-nationalism and inter-governmentalism, and seeing the EU as less democratic than a nation-state, at least the doctrine ought to embrace the most characteristic trait of European integration - namely supra-national decision-making - and discuss its future potential. In the book, recent changes in EU constitutional law and constitutional theory are observed. Leading EU theorists - such as Weiler, Majone, and Habermas - are critically analyzed, with a view to their inability to see the EU today for what it really is. Finally, alternative strategies for the next decades are discussed, which may make the EU work more efficiently and, at the same time, bridge the gap between the Union and its citizens.
Author: J. H. H. Weiler
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521796712
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 256
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Book Description
Leading scholars of European constitutionalism highlight different facets of the constitutional discussion.
