Abstract: On June 30, 2009, the German Constitutional Court declared the Lisbon Treaty to be compatible with the German constitution. The Lisbon decision marked the end of an intense constitutional battle. The following text illustrates how different views on and different understandings of...

Abstract: In Europe the public role of the religions appears to be directly proportional to the fall in trust in the procedural mechanisms at the basis of the liberal democracies. Compared to the strong identities attributed to the United States and to the Islamic world Europe is accused of...

Abstract: Cultural Diversity is an important political and legal topos in the European Union. At the same time, the concern for cultural diversity gives reason for grave reservations towards the Union. This article intends to assist, on the basis of international law, in distinguishing...

Abstract: The European Security and Defence Policy (ESDP) is understood as an important new "instrument" in the EU's Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) "toolbox", designed to respond to the contemporary security environment as well as to overcome the inaction and hesitancy of the past....

Abstract: The European Union’s quest for democratic and legitimate governance, together with an appropriately defined collective identity and boundaries did not start with the current enlargement process. The Union’s search for its finalité politique and collective identity, however, will...

Abstract: This article is about the state of social rights in the European Union, in comparison with their protection at national level. The first part aims to define the term of social citizenship as it is understood in European legal culture. The second part examines the recent evolution of...

Abstract: This article examines the response of Europe’s courts – and in particular of the EU’s Court of Justice (ECJ) - to the dramatic challenges recently brought before them against the UN Security Council’s anti-terrorist sanctions regime.  The ECJ in Kadi annulled the EC’s...

Abstract: The history of migration policy in Europe and United States between the late XIX and the early XX century offers several issues of comparison with the current EU regulation. The paper analyzes, with a historical-philosophical approach, these two experiences with the main focus on the...

Abstract: In this paper I seek to explicate the ideas about EU membership embedded in the accession criteria, and in the pre-accession monitoring of Poland, Romania and Turkey. Taking four ideal-type modes of membership as my heuristic gear, I will show that the way the criteria were interpreted...