Evropa to može bolje. O mogućnostima konstitucionalizacije Evrope / EU
Europe Can Do It Better: On the Possibilities of the Constitutionalisation of Europe / EU

Summary/Abstract: The paper deals with the relationship between democracy and constitutionality in the context of the contemporary experience of the European Union. In a text published five years ago, Habermas resignedly identifies a particular deadlock and crisis in discussions about Europe/EU. The colonisation of the public sphere, the limited reach of „citizenship”, and the dominance of the technocratic ethos. Dieter Grimm joins this discussion with an extensive text that seeks an answer to the question „does Europe need a constitution”. Grimm opens the discussion with a fundamental question about the constitution’s constituents and the difference between „constituent power” (pouvoir constituant) and constituting power (pouvoirs constitutes). Etienne Balibar (We, the people of Europe) moves the discussion from the field of constitutional theory to democracy. His canonical book represents one of the strongest calls for the re-establishment of (European) democracy. Hans Vorlander’s work (The Multiple Constitutionalisms of Europe) is a normative attempt to resolve this antinomy. The future, the author summarizes, lies in thought and action initiatives, shaping an alternative „hegemonic strategy” in the center of which will be the demand for the re-establishment of constitutional democracy.

• Details
• Contents