The European Convention and the Rome and Brussels IGCs : a veto players analysis / George Tsebelis -- The European Convention : consensus without unity? / Thomas Kèonig, Andreas Warntjen and Simone Burkhart -- Austria : the coordination of the national position regarding the Constitution / Christine Arnold and Annemieke Burmeister -- Belgium, the Convention and the IGC : consensus and coalition politics / Christophe Crombez and Jan Lebbe -- Cyprus : under the shadow of the inter-communal conflict / Spyros Blavoukos and George Pagoulatos -- The Czech Republic : sitting on the fence / Tobias Schulz and Martina Chabreckova -- Denmark : the Nordic Model as an effort to bridge elite Euro-optimism and popular Euro-skepticism / Hartmut Lenz and Han Dorussen -- Estonia : a single voice in Europe's intergovernmental bargaining / Daniel Finke -- Finland : centralized consensus on EU constitution building / Daniel Finke and Thomas König -- France : The President takes all / Tobias Schulz -- Germany : the promoter of European integration? / Stephanie Daimer and Thomas König -- Greece : overcoming negative stereotyping / George Pagoulatos and Spyros Blavoukos -- Hungary : united in support, divided by borders / Anna Gwiazda and Kenneth Benoit -- Ireland : pragmatism and the EU constitution / Anna Gwiazda -- Italy : the presidency at work? / Tobias Schulz -- Latvia and the EU constitution : a pragmatic yes / Stephanie Daimer -- Lithuania : a priority for Europe / Stephanie Daimer -- Luxembourg, the Convention and the IGC : consensus and concern for its economy / Christophe Crombez and Jan Lebbe -- Malta : the importance of being unimportant / Spyros Blavoukos -- The Netherlands : domestic preference formation on the European Constitution / Christine Arnold, Madeleine O. Hosli and Paul Pennings -- Poland : the struggle for Nice / Anna Gwiazda -- Portugal : quest for a new role / Spyros Blavoukos and George Pagoulatos -- Slovakia : avoiding conflict to secure stability / Tobias Schulz and Martina Chabreckova -- Slovenia : consensus, integration and the protection of identity / Giacomo Benedetto -- Spain : preference formation and European constitution building / Raj S. Chari and Alfonso Egea-de Haro -- Sweden's third way toward the EU constitution : promoting social policies and safeguarding neutrality / Hartmut Lenz and Han Dorussen -- The United Kingdom : position taking and the protection of red lines / Giacomo Benedetto -- The Commission, the Convention and the IGC : consensus and concern for its role / Christophe Crombez and Jan Lebbe -- The European Parliament : consensus and coordination for enhanced powers / Giacomo Benedetto.

An analysis of the repeated existential crises affecting the resilience of the European Union in the twenty-first century.

This two-volume book, published open access, brings together leading scholars of constitutional law from twenty-nine European countries to revisit the role of national constitutions at a time when decision-making has increasingly shifted to the European and transnational level. It offers important insights into three areas. First, it explores how constitutions reflect the transfer of powers from domestic to European and global institutions. Secondly, it revisits substantive constitutional values, such as the protection of constitutional rights, the rule of law, democratic participation and constitutional review, along with constitutional court judgments that tackle the protection of these rights and values in the transnational context, e.g. with regard to the Data Retention Directive, the European Arrest Warrant, the ESM Treaty, and EU and IMF austerity measures. The responsiveness of the ECJ regarding the above rights and values, along with the standard of protection, is also assessed. Thirdly, challenges in the context of global governance in relation to judicial review, democratic control and accountability are examined. On a broader level, the contributors were also invited to reflect on what has increasingly been described as the erosion or ‘twilight’ of constitutionalism, or a shift to a thin version of the rule of law, democracy and judicial review in the context of Europeanisation and globalisation processes. The national reports are complemented by a separately published comparative study, which identifies a number of broader trends and challenges that are shared across several Member States and warrant wider discussion. The research for this publication and the comparative study were carried out within the framework of the ERC-funded project ‘The Role and Future of National Constitutions in European and Global Governance’. The book is aimed at scholars, researchers, judges and legal advisors working on the interface between national constitutional law and EU and transnational law. The extradition cases are also of interest to scholars and practitioners in the field of criminal law. Anneli Albi is Professor of European Law at the University of Kent, United Kingdom. Samo Bardutzky is Assistant Professor of Constitutional Law at the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia.

A collection of essays that surveys the development and structure of the European Union's constitutional regime for foreign affairs.

'I can enthusiastically recommend and endorse this book. It serves the very important purpose of collecting key documents together in an elegant and accessible text. There currently exists a huge proliferation of material on the EU Constitution this volume makes a very wise selection of this profusion, compiling it into a manageable and informative whole. Nine chapters deal with the most significant matters concerning the Constitution. A short but well written introduction at the start of each chapter precedes following extracts. Part of the value of this book lies in the fact that it includes translations of some important documents which are difficult, or impossible, to access in English for example, recent decisions of national courts concerning the European Arrest Warrant. All in all, this work is a comprehensive, but not overwhelmingly large, collection of materials on the EU Constitution, and it will prove extremely valuable to all those working within this area of law. By presenting the Constitution, the background to the Constitution, and the issues it deals with, in this clear and informative way, it will shed new light upon, and help all of us to form our own judgements on, the EU Constitution, and its importance to our lives.' Sionaidh Douglas-Scott, King's College London, UK 'Whatever the ultimate fate of the EU's Constitutional Treaty, both the events which led to its conclusion and those which occurred afterwards during its ill-fated ratification process have profoundly shaped the future of the European Union as a constitutional project. This collection of materials offers an invaluable set of resources for understanding these events, in their widest legal and political context. The text will be useful to all those who seek to understand both why the EU has reached such a turning point, and where it might go in the future.' Jo Shaw, Edinburgh Law School, UK This book offers a selection of materials that enable a better understanding of some of the most important changes that would be introduced by the Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe in the EU legal and political system. It also helps to assess the need for the reforms embedded in the Constitutional Treaty as well as the quality of the formulations agreed upon by the signatory Member States. The book includes excerpts of the European Convention's work, selected statutory and constitutional provisions of the Member States, and also related passages from pertinent court decisions from both European courts as well as Member States' constitutional courts. Institutional and doctrinal analyses and relevant excerpts from the Constitutional Treaty itself are also included. Many of these documents directly relate to the provisions of the Constitutional Treaty, while the others, although not directly related, are nevertheless relevant to the debate surrounding it. The European Constitution, by two of the best experts on the Constitution for Europe, will be of great interest to researchers and teachers in the fields of European Law and European politics, and also to policy makers in European affairs.

European constitutionalisation has met with scepticism - this book analyses the steps necessary to move to EU's 'Second Constitution'.

Leading scholars of European constitutionalism highlight different facets of the constitutional discussion.

The emergence of a common security and foreign policy has been one of the most contentious issues accompanying the integration of the European Union. In this book, Michael Smith examines the specific ways foreign policy cooperation has been institutionalized in the EU, the way institutional development affects cooperative outcomes in foreign policy, and how those outcomes lead to new institutional reforms. Smith explains the evolution and performance of the institutional procedures of the EU using a unique analytical framework, supported by extensive empirical evidence drawn from interviews, case studies, official documents and secondary sources. His perceptive and well-informed analysis covers the entire history of EU foreign policy cooperation, from its origins in the late 1960s up to the start of the 2003 constitutional convention. Demonstrating the importance and extent of EU foreign/security policy, the book will be of interest to scholars, researchers and policy-makers.

An introduction to the European Union from a comparative politics perspective, systematically analysing its functioning through comparison with national political systems.