Suchergebnisse

The Principles of Constitutionalism examines the principles which speak to the construction and interaction of state institutions. This article responds to some criticisms of that book, in particular, those which question the universalizability of the principles, the relationship between state institutions and the people of the state, the place of democracy within constitutionalism, and the role of finality in state decision-making. It is argued that it is the link between the people and institutions, mediated by democracy, that both explains and justifies the state's claim to act as the final arbiter of the obligations of its people.

Is the european Union a state? Does it possess a constitution? And, accompanying these conundrums, if the Union lacks these characteristics, should we seek to confer them on it? There are some questions which are easier to answer than to understand, and questions about the statehood and constitution of the Union are of this nature. Pragmatic scholars have tended to dispose of such matters briskly; confident that their answers were correct, even if unsure of the basis for their confidence. The decision to entitle the product of the European Convention a 'constitution' has given these questions new significance. A small portion, at the very least, of the confused debate surrounding the Draft Constitution has been caused by the murky relationship between constitutions and states, and the implications that flow from statehood.