'Deliberative Supranationalism' A Defence

This paper is essentially a translation of a comment in German (Joerges 2000) on a series of articles in which Rainer Schmalz-Bruns (1998, 1999a, 1999b) developed a concept of legitimate governance beyond the constitutional state, which he called deliberative supra-nationalism and contrasted with what Jürgen Neyer and the present author had suggested under the same title (Joerges/Neyer 1997). Our querelles allemandes were not specifically Teutonic: while Schmalz-Bruns presented his approach as a systematic elaboration of the theories of deliberative democracy, based, in particular, on recent contributions by Joshua Cohen, Michael Dorf and Charles Sabel (Cohen/Sabel, 1997; Dorf/Sabel 1998), Jürgen Neyer and I had offered an interpretation of institutional innovations and decision-making practices as observed in the European market-building project. This discussion has had precursors and follow-ups in various contexts, among both lawyers and political scientists. This essay should hence be understood as contribution to an ongoing debate.