These reflections address two tasks prompted by current controversies concerning whether the EU needs a written constitution. Normative considerations do not seem to require a constitution now – nor does such a constitution appear illegitimate in principle, hence it is normatively permissible...

The Convention appears to many as both a confirmation of the thesis of the new institutionalism on the value of institutions for shaping the outcome of constitutional politics (the politics of creating EU fundamental rules) and a new model for democratic deliberative politics. From this second...

This paper seeks to explain the varying, and sometimes intriguing, outcomes of the past three Treaty revision negotiations of European Union/Community visa, asylum and immigration policy. Regarding this policy area, I focus on the substantial constitutional issues of decision rules and...

A comparison of the results of the six most recent Intergovernmental Conferences (IGCs) in the European Union (EU) indicates that member governments' success in achieving substantial compromises based on issue linkages differs across cases. An examination of supranational and intergovernmental...

Particular problems in EU human rights protection stem from the final clauses of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights (Articles 51 ff). This paper examines these key provisions as well as the proposals for amendments which have been put forward by Working Group II of the Convention and which...

The paper deals with certain questions and problems of the constitutionalization of the European Union which did not receive very much attention from the Convention on the Future of Europe and from the observers of that Conventions work, but which, nevertheless, may be relevant whenever the...

The third part of the Constitution for Europe has been submitted to hard criticism. The content of this part however, is indispensable to a Constitution of the European Union as it is a consolidation of the legal bases and institutional details which are necessary to the functioning of the EU....

The defeat European constitutionalism has experienced in the French and the Dutch referendum has many reasons. The deficiency this contribution addresses is the lack of sensitivity for the historical dimensions of the integration project in general and the darker legacies of law in particular....

Following up on a previous study on the Convention on the Future of Europe, the present article investigates the reception of the EU's constitutional experience in the public. A qualitative analysis of the press coverage of the various phases of constitutionalisation between the decision on...

No matter how one evaluates the product of its work, the Convention on the Future ofEurope has marked a turning point in the history of European integration. This article is divided into three parts. The first presents the different actors who participated in the Convention and the cleavages...