As the project closes: articles and book chapters

Jan Komárek: “Imagining European Constitutionalism as a Constitutional Scholar”

This is Jan Komárek’s reply to the contributions to the EJLS’s symposium on his edited book, European constitutional imaginaries: Between ideology and utopia (OUP 2024). The article is available open access here [pdf].

Michał Krajewski: “The constitutional quandary of social rights: Questions in times of the Polish illiberal turn”

Abstract: Scholars have intensely debated the justiciability of constitutional social rights, an essential aspect of transformative constitutionalism in Central and Eastern Europe. This article examines the reasons for displacing social rights in the Polish constitutional discourse and the obstacles in the way of these rights’ gaining normative substance. Polish society…

Jan Komárek: “Freedom and Power of European Constitutional Scholarship”

What is it that European constitutional scholars are, and should be, pursuing? The noble answer would be: knowledge, as all scholars do. However, they do much more, undoubtedly because of the nature of their discipline. Lawyers have always been close to power. This has consequences for the way they conduct their…

Signe Rehling Larsen: “Varieties of Constitutionalism in the European Union”

The underlying assumption of constitutional pluralism, one of the dominant theories of EU legal scholarship, is a fundamental constitutional homogeneity amongst the EU Member States allowing for harmonious co‐existence and ‘constitutional tolerance’. This article challenges this assumption by demonstrating that the EU is characterised by a fundamental constitutional heterogeneity. It…

Matej Avbelj: “Revitalisation of EU Constitutionalism”

This article argues that, despite the negative historical experience, nothing in the nature of constitutionalism as a concept stands in the way of the European Union (EU) eventually adopting a constitution, and so turning its tacit and silent constitutionalism into an explicit project. Furthermore, the past crises of European integration,…

Jan Komárek: “Rethinking constitutionalism and democracy . . . again?”

This is a review essay on three recently published books that seek to rethink constitutionalism and democracy in the context of European integration. The books are: Dieter Grimm, The Constitution of European Democracy (Oxford: OUP 2017), Athanasios Psygkas, From the “Democratic Deficit” to a “Democratic Surplus”: Constructing Administrative Democracy in…