Download or read book Constitutional Acceleration within the European Union and Beyond written by Paul Blokker and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-10-12 with total page 361 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Modern constitutionalism as an idea and practice is facing great uncertainty in current times. Scholarly debates focus predominantly on constitutions beyond the state, while the predicament of domestic constitutionalism is much less considered. This volume contributes to a theoretically informed analysis of the key challenges and changes affecting domestic constitutionalism in Europe and beyond, departing from the idea of ‘constitutional acceleration’ or the increased propensity of different actors to engage in (formal) reform of the constitutional order. The volume points to a fundamental change in the function of constitutions in that constitutions themselves are increasingly subjects of political contestation rather than framing political debates. The collection of essays addresses a range of critical challenges – including societal acceleration, depoliticization, civic engagement, multi-faceted constituent power, modernization, populism and nationalism, and transnationalization. The volume includes a variety of disciplinary, and in some cases interdisciplinary, approaches, including (political) sociology, political science, constitutional law, and constitutional and legal theory, and will be of interest to researchers and students in any of these areas. Case studies focus on the EU and the wider European context, and include highly relevant but little known or ill-understood cases, such as the recent constitutional events in Iceland, Italy, or Romania, and cases of democratic reversal, such as Hungary, while also engaging with traditional but rapidly changing cases of constitutional interest, such as the UK.

Download or read book European Constitutionalism Beyond the State written by J. H. H. Weiler and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2003-09-04 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Leading scholars of European constitutionalism highlight different facets of the constitutional discussion.

Download or read book Constitutional Pluralism in the European Union and Beyond written by Matej Avbelj and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2012-02-29 with total page 452 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Constitutional pluralism has become immensely popular among scholars who study European integration and issues of global governance. Some of them believe that constitutionalism, traditionally thought to be bound to a nation state, can emerge beyond state borders - most importantly in the process of European integration, but also beyond that, for example, in international regulatory regimes such as the WTO, or international systems of fundamental rights protection, such as the European Convention. At the same time, the idea of constitutional pluralism has not gone unchallenged. Some have questioned its compatibility with the very nature of law and the values which law brings to constitutionalism. The critiques have come from both sides: from those who believe in the 'traditional' European constitutionalism based on a hierarchically superior authority of the European Union as well as from scholars focusing on constitutions of particular states. The book collects contributions taking opposing perspectives on constitutional pluralism - some defending and promoting the concept of constitutional pluralism, some criticising and opposing it. While some authors can be called 'the founding fathers of constitutional pluralism', others are young academics who have recently entered the field. Together they offer fresh perspectives on both theoretical and practical aspects of constitutional pluralism, enriching our existing understanding of the concept in current scholarship.

Download or read book Constitutional Life and Europe s Area of Freedom Security and Justice written by Alun Howard Gibbs and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-05-23 with total page 168 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The challenge of thinking about the place of constitutionalism beyond the conventional categories of the nation state has become a principal concern for legal and political scholars. This book casts this issue in a different light by exploring the implications for the constitutionalism of legal integration in the European Union's 'area of freedom, security and justice'. In doing so it makes a novel contribution to an understanding of the European Union as a political community beyond the state, but in addition explores how this entails thinking differently about what is essential concerning constitutionalism. The book argues that instead of seeking to theorise constitutional foundations we actually begin to encounter the constitutional life implied by political and legal practices in the European Union and as exemplified here by 'the area of freedom, security and justice'.

Download or read book Europe s Functional Constitution written by Turkuler Isiksel and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2016-05-26 with total page 376 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Constitutionalism has become a byword for legitimate government, but is it fated to lose its relevance as constitutional states relinquish power to international institutions? This book evaluates the extent to which constitutionalism, as an empirical idea and normative ideal, can be adapted to institutions beyond the state by surveying the sophisticated legal and political system of the European Union. Having originated in a series of agreements between states, the EU has acquired important constitutional features like judicial review, protections for individual rights, and a hierarchy of norms. Nonetheless, it confounds traditional models of constitutional rule to the extent that its claim to authority rests on the promise of economic prosperity and technocratic competence rather than on the democratic will of citizens. Critically appraising the European Union and its legal system, this book proposes the idea of 'functional constitutionalism' to describe this distinctive configuration of public power. Although the EU is the most advanced instance of functional constitutionalism to date, understanding this pragmatic mode of constitutional authority is essential for assessing contemporary international economic governance.

Download or read book The Making of a European Constitution written by Michelle Everson and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2007-09-21 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Introduction -- Constitutional mo(u)rning -- Retelling the legal integration story -- Forgetting law -- Adjudicating non-authoritative law -- Constitutionalising the institutional balance of powers -- The principled judicial mechanics of constitutional morphogenesis -- Constitutionalism beyond constitutions.

Download or read book Constitutional Crisis in the European Constitutional Area written by Armin von Bogdandy and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2015-03-26 with total page 392 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The concept of a European Constitutional Area has been used in legal scholarship to describe a common space of constitutionalism where national and international constitutional guarantees interact to maintain the common constitutional values of Europe. This concept has not yet been tested in a case where the constitutional order of a Member State of the European Union seems to develop systemic deficiencies. The present volume aims to assess recent constitutional developments in Hungary and Romania, as well as the interplay of national, international and European constitutionalism which react to the loopholes in national constitutions. Accordingly, a core part of the volume is an in-depth analysis of the situation in Hungary and Romania. Based on that, the volume offers an account of the different reaction mechanisms of the European Union and of the Council of Europe. Beyond a detailed stock-taking of these mechanisms, their legal and political frameworks are explored, as well as different ways to extend their reach. In this way, the volume contributes to a little-studied aspect of European constitutionalism.

Download or read book Learning from the EU Constitutional Treaty written by Ben Crum and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-03-01 with total page 277 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The negative results of referenda on the European Union (EU) Constitutional Treaty in France and the Netherlands, and subsequent low-key adoption of the Treaty of Lisbon raise complex questions about the possible democratization of international organisations. This book provides a full analysis of the EU Constitutional Treaty process, grounded in broader political theoretical debates about democratic constitutionalisation and globalization. As international organizations become permanent systems of governance that directly interfere in individuals’ lives, it is not enough to have them legitimated by the consent of governments alone. This book presents an evaluation of the present EU Treaty of Lisbon in comparison with the original EU Constitutional Treaty, and analyses the importance of consent of the people, asking if saving the treaty came at the cost of democracy. Drawing first-hand on the European Convention and the referendum in the Netherlands, this book outlines an original political theory of democratic constitutionalisation beyond the nation-state, and argues that international organizations can be put on democratic foundations, but only by properly engaging national political structures. Learning from the EU Constitutional Treaty will be of interest to students and scholars of European Union politics, history and policy.

Download or read book Constitutional Politics in Central and Eastern Europe written by Anna Fruhstorfer and published by Springer. This book was released on 2016-10-12 with total page 569 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The contributions to this edited volume discuss constitutional politics in 20 Central and Eastern European countries. The country chapters describe all constitutional amendments and new constitutions after the first post-communist constitution-making, all failed amendment attempts, and the political discourses about constitutional politics. Framed by a broad comparative chapter, the country studies are embedded in the established literature on constitutional politics. The book thus provides a better understanding of constitutional politics in the region and beyond.

Download or read book The Constitutional Structure of Europe s Area of Freedom Security and Justice and the Right to Justification written by Ester Herlin-Karnell and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2019-04-18 with total page 234 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book explores the implications of freedom as a non-domination-oriented view for understanding EU security regulation and its constitutional implications. At a time when the European borders are under pressure and with the refugee and migration crisis, which escalated in 2015, the idea of exploring a constitutional theory for the 'Area of Freedom, Security and Justice' (AFSJ) might seem to be a utopian project. This appears especially true in the light of the increased threat of terrorism in Europe (and on a global scale) and where the expanding EU security agenda is often advanced through the administrative law path, in contrast to the constitutional trajectory. Add to this the prolonged financial crisis, which continues to cast a long shadow on the future development of EU integration, and which suggests that Europe needs to 're-invent itself' beyond the sphere of economics. Therefore, it is precisely because of the current uncertainties regarding the progress of the EU and the constitutional law project that a constitutional take on the AFSJ is of particular importance. The book investigates the meaning of non-domination and the idea of justice and justification in the area of EU security regulation. In doing so, it focuses on the development of an AFSJ, what it means, and why it represents a fascinating example of contemporary constitutional law with interacting layers of security regulation, human rights law and transnational legal theory at its core.

Download or read book Self constitution of European Society written by Jiří Přibáň and published by Ashgate. This book was released on 2016 with total page 346 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Recent social and political developments in the EU have clearly shown the profound structural changes in European society and its politics. Reflecting on these developments and responding to the existing body of academic literature and scholarship, this book critically discusses the emerging notion of European constitutionalism, its varieties and different contextualization in theories of EU law, general jurisprudence, sociology of law, political theory and sociology. The contributors address different problems related to the relationship between the constitutional state and non-state constitutionalizations and critically analyze general theories of constitutional monism, dualism and pluralism and their juridical and political uses in the context of EU constitutionalism. Individual chapters emphasize the importance of interdisciplinary and socio-legal methods in the current research of EU constitutionalism and their potential to re-conceptualize and re-think traditional problems of constitutional subjects, limitation and separation of power, political symbolism and identity politics in Europe. This collection simultaneously describes the EU and its self-constitution as one polity, differentiated society and shared community and its contributors conceptualize the sense of common identity and solidarity in the context of the post-sovereign multitude of European society." -- Back cover.

Download or read book The European Constitution and National Constitutions written by Anneli Albi and published by . This book was released on 2007 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Whether the Constitutional Treaty will enter into effectand¿or the prospect of the EU having a constitutional text is pushed back to a much more distant future the ratification of an EU Constitution raises questions of fundamental importance from the point of view of national constitutional law. Whilst constitutions have traditionally been linked to states, more recent theories, such as post-national, multi-level, or intertwined constitutionalism, recognise the possibility for a constitution to exist in a non-state context. In this very valuable book, which focuses on the ratification of the European Constitutional Treaty, twenty-eight authorities in constitutional and EU law examine the extent to which such theories have made inroads in national constitutional thinking. The contributors examine the debates and official documents of the political institutions that have been involved in the ratification process in the Member States, as well as constitutional court decisions and scholarly discourse. They also cover a range of closely related issues, such as the amendment of national constitutions, ratification referendums, and the implications of the codification of the principle of primacy in the European Constitution. The book includes reports from 17 EU Member States, as well as a view from a candidate country, Croatia. These reports, along with other papers on the nature and content of the Constitutional Treaty, consider the following issues: the process and legal framework of ratification in each of the examined Member States; the novel category of constitutional treaty; constitutional elements in existing EC/EU treaties; types of constitutions and constitutionalism, and constitutions in non-state contexts; the implications of the primacy clause; ratification referendums; eurosceptic fears of the development of a super-state. The book is based on the proceedings of an international conference that was held in Tallinn, Estonia, in November 2005. By assessing the implications of the European Constitution from the perspective of national constitutional law, this book fills an important gap in the literature. It also makes a contribution to the emergence of a true European-wide constitutional debate, by providing both researchers and policy-makers with comparative information regarding the constitutional aspects of ratification in Member States. It will be of absorbing interest and value for years to come as the European constitutional debate continues.

Download or read book Law Democracy and Solidarity in a Post national Union written by Erik Oddvar Eriksen and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2008-07-04 with total page 423 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: To many, the rejections of the Constitutional Treaty by Dutch and French voters in 2005 came as a shock. However, given the many tensions and the many unresolved issues it was quite unsurprising. The challenges facing the Constitutional debate go to the core of the European integration process as they have to do with the terms on which to establish a post-national political order. This book deals with four themes which make up the main sources of the ‘constitutional crisis’: The problem of the rule of law in a context of governance beyond the nation state The problem of the social deficit of the Union The problem of identity and collective memories The problem of institutionalizing post-national democracy. These themes constitute the unfinished agenda of the European integration process. Law, Democracy and Solidarity in a Post-national Union is based on the efforts of a collection of top scholars in the fields of Law, Political Science, Sociology and Economics, and will appeal to students and scholars of political science, the European Union and European studies.

Download or read book The Constitution of the European Union written by Ulrich Haltern and published by Hart Publishing. This book was released on 2021-03-11 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This books provides a contextual analysis of the constitution of the European Union which, unlike most constitutions, does not belong to a state. Rather, the EU is an international organization that has moved beyond the features of international law into a terrain very close to the municipal law of federal states. Many features we take for granted in nation-states are non-existent, or contested, in the Union. There is no European Union constitutional text in the proper sense; the “Constitutional Treaty” signed by the Member States in 2004 failed spectacularly in the process of popular ratification. The Union's founding texts were international treaties – international law, not constitutional law. And yet, over time, legal doctrine put into place by the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg has led to constitutional attributes of Union law, and political practice, led by the Commission, has mirrored these attributes, complementing a de facto constitutionalist environment. As a consequence, we have seen a steady re-ordering of the functional boundaries of the Member States, followed by a nascent re-ordering of the imagined boundaries of political community and self. All of this is constitutionalism writ large: legal doctrines, institutional arrangements, political practices, and their implications for legitimacy, democracy, and political self-imagination, and together they form the subject of this fascinating book.

Download or read book The EU and Constitutional Time written by Massimo Fichera and published by Edward Elgar Publishing. This book was released on 2023-07-28 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This insightful book examines the inherent fragility of modern liberal constitutionalism and shows how it is in the nature of every constitutional community, including the European Union, to try to protract its own duration as much as possible. The book considers the strengths, weaknesses, tensions and contradictions of European constitutionalism using the lens of constitutional time. The author's claim is that duration should not be sought just for its own sake: an internal link between constitutionalism and democracy should be ensured. He suggests two options to achieve this objective. The first centres on decision-making at the sub-national or local level and by intermediate bodies, including cities and regions as well as political parties and private bodies. The second focuses on the promotion of socio-economic rights and welfare standards. Through these debates a theory of 'communal constitutionalism' is proposed - placing emphasis on the role of future generations. Combining temporal and reflexive dimensions it addresses the questions of how to be 'secure' and what it means for the EU polity to be 'secure'. This expertly crafted book will be essential reading for students and scholars of constitutional and administrative law, European law and legal theory. It will also be of interest to political scientists looking at European constitutionalism and sociologists interested in the development of law beyond the State.

Download or read book The Many Constitutions of Europe written by Suvi Sankari and published by Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.. This book was released on 2013-02-28 with total page 486 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume makes a contribution to the ongoing lively discussion on European constitutionalism by offering a new perspective and a new interpretation of European constitutional plurality. The book combines diverse disciplinary approaches to the constitutional debate. It brings together complementing contributions from scholars of European politics, economics, and sociology, as well as established scholars from various fields of law. Moreover, it provides analytical clarity to the discussion and combines theory with more practical and critical approaches that make use of the constitutional toolbox in analysing the tensions between the different constitutions. The collection is a valuable point of reference not only for scholars interested in European studies but also for graduate and post-graduate students.

Download or read book Critical Reflections on Constitutional Democracy in the European Union written by Sacha Garben and published by Hart Publishing. This book was released on 2019 with total page 431 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "This book takes a wide-ranging approach to tackle the complex question of the current state of constitutional democracy in the EU. It brings together a broad set of academics and practitioners, legal and political perspectives, focusing on both topical and perennial issues concerning constitutional democracy (including safeguarding the rule of law and respect for fundamental rights) in theory and practice, primarily at EU level but also with due regard to national and global developments. This approach underlines that rather than a single problématique to be analysed and resolved, we are presently facing a kaleidoscopic spectrum of related challenges that influence each other in elusive, multifaceted ways. Critical Reflections on Constitutional Democracy in the European Union offers a rich analysis of the issues as well as concrete policy recommendations, which will appeal to scholars and practitioners, students and interested citizens alike. It provides a meaningful contribution to the rich array of existing scholarship and debate, by proposing original elements of analysis, challenging often-made assumptions, destabilising settled understandings and proposing fundamental reforms. Overall, the collection injects a set of fresh critical perspectives on this fundamental issue that is as contemporary as it is eternal"--