Semiar series 2/4 – EU Constitutionalisam Revisited: Redressing a Central Assumption in European Studies
Speaker: Morten Rasmussen (University of Copenhagen)
Discussant: Christian Pennera, Special Advisor – EU Commission. Former Jurisconsult of the European Parliament.
Moderator: Prof. Robert Harmsen, University of Luxembourg
Abstract
The constitutionalisation of the European Union has since the early 1990s become a truism in European studies. The European Court of Justice – so the story goes – transformed the Treaties of Rome into a transnational constitution by means of its case law and as a result turned legal integration into one of the central dynamics of the integration process. Existing research has for decades refined this narrative, which essentially consists of two major claims: on the one hand, that the ECJ and its interlocutors have successfully constitutionalised the Treaties of Rome and, on the other hand, that this has led to a comprehensive judicialisation of European politics to the degree where law frames, defines and decides political action and not the other way around. This lecture will revisit the constitutionalisation theory, arguing that the conventional constitutional narrative is less convincing when confronted with the new evidence and insights from historical and political science research. Problematising the notion that the ECJ has successfully constitutionalised the EU, emphasis is placed instead on the inherent tensions in the process, which continue to complicate the efficiency of European law.
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