What is the nature of the European Union? Does it have the characteristics of a state, and if so, which? We employ a single imagea poster that won a Marshall Plan competition in 1950to examine the various legal perspectives of the EU that have emerged over the past six decades. Created as a...

Is corporate tax competition a threat to democracy in the EU? The answer depends crucially on a positive analysis of the effects of tax competition on national policy autonomy. Most analyses focus on direct effects on corporate tax rates and revenues. We contend that this focus is too narrow. It...

Eine wachsende Zahl empirischer Arbeiten hat inzwischen gezeigt, dass der politische Integrationsprozess der Europäischen Union zwar von einer zunehmenden Europäisierung nationaler Öffentlichkeiten begleitet ist, die darüber erzeugte europäische Öffentlichkeit aber national segmentiert...

Judge-made law has played a crucial role in the process of European integration. In the vertical dimension, it has greatly reduced the range of autonomous policy choices in the member states, and it has helped to expand the reach of European competences. At the same time, however, "Integration...

In order to be simultaneously effective and liberal, governments must normally be able to count on voluntary compliance - which, in turn, depends on the support of socially shared legitimacy beliefs. In Western constitutional democracies, such beliefs are derived from the distinct but coexistent...

The function of legitimacy is to ensure voluntary compliance with unwelcome exercises of governing authority. Since practically all European law needs to be implemented and enforced by the governments and courts of the member states, the EU does not have to face its citizens directly. It follows...

Europäisierungsprozesse werden vielfach als Bedrohung wahrgenommen. Weil das spezifisch "europäische" am Transformationsprozess von Staatlichkeit nicht so richtig zu fassen ist, bleibt als Ausweg nur die Argumentation mit dem Staat. So auch im Lissabon-Urteil des Bundesverfassungsgerichts, das...

In a recent article, Caporaso and Tarrow have argued that the jurisprudence of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) is increasingly moving in a social policy direction that will ultimately put European politics on a “Polanyian” course. We take issue with their claim and distinguish three...

Die internationale Finanz- und Wirtschaftskrise beeinflusste das Spannungsverhältnis zwischen Solidarität und Wettbewerb in der Europäischen Union in zweierlei Hinsicht. Zum einen drängten die Regierungen der europäischen Mitgliedstaaten darauf, ihre notleidenden Banken (aber auch...