In the European Employment Strategy (EES) the EU applies the so-called ‘Open Method of Coordination’ (OMC). In the academic literature it is stylized as a focal point for decentralised modes of governance. But drawing on Michel Foucault’s governmentality approach the OMC does not seem to...

The COREU/CORTESY network, through which member states exchange documents related to the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) is a crucial but little known instrument in the EU system of foreign policy making. This paper aims to shed light on how it works and what function it serves. It...

This paper examines the relationship between gender identity, feminism and democracy in the context of the European Union. In the first part of the paper, Schleicher examines the concept of gender and pose the question: under which circumstances can and should the term ‘gender’ replace the...

Constitutional pluralism divides opinion. What makes it attractive to some in a globally connected world also accounts for the scepticism of others. Its allure lies in its ambition to square two ideas – ‘constitutionalism’ and ‘pluralism’ - typically understood as incompatible....

Drawing on the classical distinction between community (Gemeinschaft) and society (Gesellschaft) by Tönnies (1963) and the related analytical distinction between strong and weak forms of collective identities, this paper analyses European identity constructions in ‘future-of-Europe’-debates...

'Constitutionalisation' is the key concept in the search for legitimate governance in the European Union and in the international system. This paper suggests revitalising of a discipline which is widely neglected in European law and international law scholarship. It does not, however, recommend...

Understanding the consequences, for states and citizens, of making policy on the EU level is central to the reception of the European project and questions of democracy in the EU. This analysis places EU policy-making, trade policy in particular, in the context of bureaucratic power literature...