Review : European Economic and Social Constitutionalism after the Treaty of Lisbon

The critique against capitalism on the grounds that its economic interests are often irreconcilable with its social aspirations has gained merit in various circles. Given this background, the debate over the economic orientation of a community and the role of non-market goals such as environmental protection and the protection of workers proves to be a rather difficult task. The (in)famous constitutional asymmetry, a term coined by Fritz Scharpf, further augments the complexity of this debate by calling for possible solutions to these problems to take into consideration not only various substantive goals, but also the contested issue of federalism. More recently, notions of “economic constitution” (employed as an analytical tool) or “economic constitutionalism” have tended not only to consider the classical clash between the market and social policy - but by embracing a far broader notion of the social element - striving to reconcile the two polarized considerations. The book “European Economic and Social Constitutionalism after the Treaty of Lisbon,” edited by Dagmar Schiek, Ulrike Liebert, and Hildegard Schneider paints an excellent illustration of this tendency