Self-Constitution of European Society: Beyond EU politics, law and governance

Description

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. Self-Constitution of European Society- Front Cover Self-Constitution of European Society Title Page Copyright Page Contents Notes on contributors Acknowledgements Introduction: on Europe’s crises and self-constitutions Bibliography PART I: The European self-constitution: concepts and theories Chapter 1: The European Constitution and the pouvoir constituant: no longer, or never, sui generis? Introduction Beyond constituent power Is this constitution sui generis? Conclusion Bibliography Chapter 2: The concept of self-limiting polity in EU constitutionalism: a systems theoretical outline Introduction Political or social theory of constitutionalism? On polity, society and governance by reason Theories of transnational governance Europe beyond statehood: the dilemma of technical governance and cosmopolitan ideals in the EU Constitutions beyond politics: the de-juridification and depoliticization of the EU in societal constitutionalism From self-constituted polities of society to the societal constitution of power European constitutional polity: assessment of theoretical responses Europe’s self-constitutionalization beyond the imagined polity of values Concluding remarks: on the sociological concept of European constitutionalism Bibliography Chapter 3: A political–sociological analysis of constitutional pluralism in Europe Introduction Theories of EU constitutionalism Universal constitutionalism Democratic constitutionalism A political sociology of European constitutional politics Transnational civil society Concluding remarks Bibliography PART II: European constitutional jurisprudence Chapter 4: Pluralist constitutional paradoxes and cosmopolitan Europe Introduction: pluralist paradoxes Cultural, legal and constitutional pluralism in Europe Who is to be master? Challenges to supremacy and constitutional pluralism MacCormick’s theoretical framework for pluralism Hermeneutic pluralism and cosmopolitan Europe Bibliography Chapter 5: The pluralist turn and its political discontents The pluralist turn in European Union (EU) and supranational studies The constitutional version of pluralism Towards radical pluralism Pluralism as fragmented constitutions What constitutional and legal pluralism do not register and why Bibliography Chapter 6: Why supra-national law is not the exception: on the grounds of legal obligations beyond the state Associative obligations: site and scope Two methods of inquiry Associative obligations: the NCC The proto-legal relation Bibliography Chapter 7: Declaratory rule of law: self-constitution through unenforceable promises Introduction Founding ideas and contemporary presumptions Assuming a particular type of constitutionalism Enforcing the values in the face of an ideological choice not to comply The broader danger of ideologically informed non-compliance On defining the scope: an argument for acknowledging EU law’s plasticity On reconsidering the values’ substance and enforcement effectiveness A glance into the future Bibliography PART III: EU constitutionalism and governance Chapter 8: Constitutionalising expertise in the EU: anchoring knowledge in democracy Introduction Expertise and (European) constitutionalism The debates on European agencies and IAs The debate on the OMC Conclusion: back to constitutionalism for a holistic approach to expertise? Bibliography Chapter 9: Bringing politics into European integration: the unvoiced issues of market-making 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. Bibliography Chapter 10: A technocratic tyranny of certainty: a preliminary sketch Shotgun politics In certain belief . . . A new scientific objectivity? A technocratic certainty The deliberative adjunct? Symbolic ideologies? Render unto the globalized market . . . Bibliography PART IV: Crises of EU constitutionalism Chapter 11: The European dual state: the double structural transformation of the public sphere and the need for repoliticization The democratic circle Constitutional facticity: the decoupling of the Eurozone from democratic legislation Constitutional evolution under economic hegemony Contradicting systems of power Constitutional technocracy Whatever it takes ‘Go Right!’ Social inequality causes political inequality The structural transformation of the public sphere I: public law The structural transformation of the public sphere II: public opinion The contradictions of the public sphere The repoliticization of the public sphere? Bibliography Chapter 12: Societal conditions of self-constitution: the experience of the European periphery Introduction Three approaches to transnational constitutionalism The force of the financial system and the experience of the loss of sovereignty On top of the economic and financial dynamics, the force of organizations Revisiting the organized/spontaneous divide The place of individuals in the sociology of constitutional processes Possibilities of self-constitution Bibliography Chapter 13: The empire of principle Introduction The ideology of Europe Integration through law Europe as post-political arrangement Katechontic Europe Conclusion: ‘Whom do you believe, your eyes or my words?’ Bibliography Index