The EU and Constitutionalism

The promise of free wine drew some of us to a seminar this early evening in the Law School, "The tension between constitutionalism and inter-governmentalism in the future of the European Union" by Miguel Poiares Maduro, Advocate General, European Court of Justice.

The first twenty minutes or so I was battling through miscomprehension of his portuguenglishese and too many variants on the root 'constitute' but slowly it began to make sense which was a huge relief.

The eponymous tension it was argued is sure to come about in a system where we end up with a 'constitution' which European peoples will look to as a constitution and judges may interpret as a constitution rather than simply a treaty - it apparently explicitly states that this is the intention. Are the people sovereign or are the member states? Are we to be treated equally under the constitution of the EU or of our member state?

This seminar actually made me feel excited about this thing called Europe. On a related note, do you think my flatmate is mocking me?

P.S. We skipped the wine and went to Kebab Mahal instead. It rocks more than Europe.

Posted by Paul in School Law at November 4, 2004 09:08 PM | 0 Comments | Browse Related Books