The European integration project currently faces profound political, economic, legal, and societal challenges. These challenges seem increasingly to overburden the European Union as well as the cohesion among the Member States, and therefore pose a serious threat to the integration project. The EU faces a major task in coping with this situation and it is one that calls for new approaches and ideas This book addresses the major challenges confronting the EU, analyses the consequences for the integration project, and develops fresh perspectives on the EU's future prospects for coping with the most debated, current and upcoming issues, such as the rise of Euroscepticism or the contested idea of an 'ever-closer union'. Renowned experts in European Studies from the fields of political science, law, economics and sociology provide an interdisciplinary perspective on the different dimensions of the EU's crisis-laden situation and question whether the EU's existing problem-solving mechanisms and methods are sufficient to address the imminent tasks. This text will be of key interest to scholars and students of EU Politics, European Politics, European Governance, and more broadly European law, history and the wider social sciences.

The European integration project currently faces profound political, economic, legal, and societal challenges. These challenges seem increasingly to overburden the European Union as well as the cohesion among the Member States, and therefore pose a serious threat to the integration project. The EU faces a major task in coping with this situation and it is one that calls for new approaches and ideas This book addresses the major challenges confronting the EU, analyses the consequences for the integration project, and develops fresh perspectives on the EU's future prospects for coping with the most debated, current and upcoming issues, such as the rise of Euroscepticism or the contested idea of an 'ever-closer union'. Renowned experts in European Studies from the fields of political science, law, economics and sociology provide an interdisciplinary perspective on the different dimensions of the EU's crisis-laden situation and question whether the EU's existing problem-solving mechanisms and methods are sufficient to address the imminent tasks. This text will be of key interest to scholars and students of EU Politics, European Politics, European Governance, and more broadly European law, history and the wider social sciences.

This volume approaches the current crisis of solidarity in the European Union from a multidisciplinary perspective. The contributions explore the concept of solidarity, its role in the European integration process, and analyze the risks entailed by a lack of solidarity. Experts from various academic fields, such as political science, law, sociology, and philosophy, shed new light on contemporary challenges such as the migrant and refugee crisis, the Eurozone crisis, nationalist and separatist movements, and Brexit. Finally, they also discuss different solutions for the most pressing problems in EU politics. The book has two main aims: Firstly, to show that solidarity is a key element in solving the EU's contemporary problems; and secondly, to reveal how the crisis of solidarity has become a crucial test for the integration project, as the nature of the crisis goes beyond the well-known shortcomings in the EU's structure and problem-solving capacities.

This volume approaches the current crisis of solidarity in the European Union from a multidisciplinary perspective. The contributions explore the concept of solidarity, its role in the European integration process, and analyze the risks entailed by a lack of solidarity. Experts from various academic fields, such as political science, law, sociology, and philosophy, shed new light on contemporary challenges such as the migrant and refugee crisis, the Eurozone crisis, nationalist and separatist movements, and Brexit. Finally, they also discuss different solutions for the most pressing problems in EU politics. The book has two main aims: Firstly, to show that solidarity is a key element in solving the EU's contemporary problems; and secondly, to reveal how the crisis of solidarity has become a crucial test for the integration project, as the nature of the crisis goes beyond the well-known shortcomings in the EU's structure and problem-solving capacities.

"Eine Gemeinschaft aus Rechtsstaaten kann nur eine Rechtsgemeinschaft sein." Wie treffend und weitsichtig diese Einschatzung des ersten Kommissionsprasidenten, Walter Hallstein, bereits seinerzeit war und wie aktuell sie auch heute noch ist, zeigt sich nicht zuletzt in dem stetig wachsenden und immer tiefer in die nationalstaatlichen Rechtsordnungen einwirkenden Bestand an Gemeinschaftsrecht. Viel wichtiger ist jedoch die Tatsache, dass das europaische Recht inzwischen selbst zu einem entscheidenden Faktor der Einigung Europas geworden ist. Es ist ein eigenstandiger Kontext der Integration und darf keinesfalls als blosses Beiprodukt der politischen Einigung Europas aufgefasst werden. Ebenso wenig lasst sich der Europaische Gerichtshof (EuGH) als ein interessengeleiteter oder sogar integrationspolitisch aktiver Akteur begreifen, auch wenn der Institution und seinen Vertretern entsprechende Motive regelmassig nachgesagt werden. Denn obgleich der EuGH die Integration Europas zweifelsohne durch seine Rechtsprechung immer wieder wesentlich vorangetrieben hat, ist er ein Akteur des Rechts und nicht der Politik. Wer die "Integration durch Recht" und die Rolle des EuGH im Integrationsprozess wirklich verstehen will, so die zentrale These dieses Buches, muss sich mit dem europaischen Rechtskontext und der ihm immanenten Rationalitat auseinandersetzen.
Ausgehend von den Arbeiten Max Webers und Ludwig Wittgensteins wird mit dem Konzept der "Kontextrationalitat "ein neuer analytischer Weg fur die theoriegeleitete Integrationsforschung aufgezeigt - jenseits der Rationalismus-Poststrukturalismus-Kontroverse. Anhand von aktuellen Fallstudien zum europarechtlichen Grundrechtsschutz nach dem "Constitutional Compromise," werden die Moglichkeiten, Grenzen und Perspektiven der "Integration durch Recht" in Europa beleuchtet."

Trotz einiger Ruckschlage in den letzten Monaten besteht weiterhin ein grosses Interesse an der wissenschaftlichen Erfassung des europaischen Integrationsprozesses. Man kann auf eine Vielzahl von Theorien zuruckgreifen, die grundlegend fur das Verstandnis der europaischen Einigung sind und auf die neuere Ansatze immer wieder Bezug nehmen. Dieser Band enthalt bedeutende politikwissenschaftliche Primartexte, die eingehend erlautert und didaktisch aufbereitet wurden."