Constitutional law is a ‘semi-autonomous’ discipline, where texts and doctrines are completely and complexly intertwined with the political systems within which constitutional law is found. This timely Research Handbook develops the idea that understanding constitutional law means understanding constitutional politics as well. Using both comparative and political analysis, this forward-looking reference work deals with the politics of constitutional law around the world, delivering global treatment of the politics of constitutional law across issues, regions and legal systems. The chapters are meticulously organised around ‘foundations’, ‘structures’, ‘rights’ and ‘futures’, providing a well-rounded overview of the topic and noting the key recent developments in the field. The distinction between law and politics is of course a contested one and the selection of prominent established and emerging scholars and contributors to this Handbook implicitly offer varying perspectives on it. Offering an innovative, critical approach to an array of key concepts and topics, this book will be a key resource for both legal scholars and political science scholars. Students with interests in law and politics, constitutions, legal theory and public policy will also find this a beneficial companion.

Among the criteria for accession to the European Union are democracy and the Rule of Law. In the insightful analysis offered by the author of this book, these concepts, while admirable and even necessary criteria in principle, are almost impossible to measure, and any judgement grounded in them will always be difficult to justify. In his words, by including analysis of democracy and the Rule of Law within the field of the EU enlargement law, the Union entered an unstable terrain of vague causal connections and blurred definitions. Dr Kochenov addresses this problem by proceeding as follows: outlining EU enlargement law in general, including the principle of conditionality and the role played by the analysis of democracy and the Rule of Law in enlargement preparation; and focusing on the role actually played by the monitoring of democracy and the Rule of Law in ten candidate countries, scrutinizing the way the EU used the legal tools and competences outlined in its enlargement law.The book adopts the EU's own understanding of democracy and the Rule of Law, as derived directly from the substance of the numerous legal and political instruments issued by the Community Institutions and especially the Commission in the course of the pre-accession process. In this way it demonstrates the actual, as opposed to the officially announced, role played by the assessment of democracy and the Rule of Law in the candidate countries in the regulation of enlargement. Many formidable inconsistencies in the application of the conditionality principle are thus laid bare.This leads the author to a series of recommendations on policy and procedure that he demonstrates could be profitably applied to the regulation of current and future accessions, using the Commission's own structure of monitoring pre-accession reforms in the three areas of the legislature, executive, and judiciary in candidate countries. The probity and soundness of these recommendations, firmly grounded as they are in the actual pre-accession monitoring and its consequences for the pre-accession progress of ten Eastern European countries admitted to the EU in 2004 and 2007, will greatly interest policymakers and scholars concerned with the future of European integration.

The gradual legal and political evolution of the European Union has not, thus far, been accompanied by the articulation or embrace of any substantive ideal of justice going beyond the founders' intent or the economic objectives of the market integration project. This absence arguably compromises the foundations of the EU legal and political system since the relationship between law and justice-a crucial question within any constitutional system-remains largely unaddressed. This edited volume brings together a number of concise contributions by leading academics and young scholars whose work addresses both legal and philosophical aspects of justice in the European context. The aim of the volume is to appraise the existence and nature of this deficit, its implications for Europe's future, and to begin a critical discussion about how it might be addressed. There have been many accounts of the EU as a story of constitutional evolution and a system of transnational governance, but few which pay sustained attention to the implications for justice. The EU today has moved beyond its initial and primary emphasis on the establishment of an Internal Market, as the growing importance of EU citizenship and social rights suggests. Yet, most legal analyses of the EU treaties and of EU case-law remain premised broadly on the assumption that EU law still largely serves the purpose of perfecting what is fundamentally a system of economic integration. The place to be occupied by the underlying substantive ideal of justice remains significantly underspecified or even vacant, creating a tension between the market-oriented foundation of the Union and the contemporary essence of its constitutional system. The relationship of law to justice is a core dimension of constitutional systems around the world, and the EU is arguably no different in this respect. The critical assessment of justice in the EU provided by the contributions to this book will help to create a fuller picture of the justice deficit in the EU, and at the same time open up an important new avenue of legal research of immediate importance.

Kochenov's definitive collection examines the under-utilised potential of EU citizenship, proposing and defending its position as a systemic element of EU law endowed with foundational importance. Leading experts in EU constitutional law scrutinise the internal dynamics in the triad of EU citizenship, citizenship rights and the resulting vertical delimitation of powers in Europe, analysing the far-reaching constitutional implications. Linking the constitutional question of federalism and citizenship, the volume establishes an innovative new framework where these rights become agents and rationales of European integration and legal change, located beyond the context of the internal market and free movement. It maps the role of citizenship in this shifting landscape, outlining key options for a Europe of the future.

The European Union undoubtedly plays an important role in the formation of international law. This takes place through a number of avenues ranging from the simple existence of this supranational legal order within the sphere of international law to the actual influencing of international legal order. With contributions by leading scholars, this collection of essays constructs and analyses a new and stimulating approach in which the European Union is perceived as an active co-creator of the international legal order on a variety of planes. Providing concrete examples of the European Union's approach to the international legal order in different policy fields, this book will be a key reference point for a new active paradigm of EU external relations law.

This book provides the definitive reference point on all the issues pertaining to dealing with the 'crisis of the rule of law' in the European Union. Both Member State and EU levels are considered. Particular attention is paid to the analysis of the concrete legal bases and instruments that the EU may avail itself of for enforcing rule of law, and the volume clearly demonstrates that a number of legally sound ways of rule of law oversight are available. Contributors are leading scholars who assess the potential role to be played by the various bodies in the context of dealing with the EU's rule of law imperfections.

This book provides the definitive reference point on all the issues pertaining to dealing with the 'crisis of the rule of law' in the European Union. Both Member State and EU levels are considered. Particular attention is paid to the analysis of the concrete legal bases and instruments that the EU may avail itself of for enforcing rule of law, and the volume clearly demonstrates that a number of legally sound ways of rule of law oversight are available. Contributors are leading scholars who assess the potential role to be played by the various bodies in the context of dealing with the EU's rule of law imperfections.

The European Union undoubtedly plays an important role in the formation of international law. This takes place through a number of avenues ranging from the simple existence of this supranational legal order within the sphere of international law to the actual influencing of international legal order. With contributions by leading scholars, this collection of essays constructs and analyses a new and stimulating approach in which the European Union is perceived as an active co-creator of the international legal order on a variety of plains. Providing concrete examples of the European Union's approach to the international legal order in different policy fields, this book will be a key reference point for a new active paradigm of EU external relations law.

Kochenov's definitive collection examines the under-utilised potential of EU citizenship, proposing and defending its position as a systemic element of EU law endowed with foundational importance. Leading experts in EU constitutional law scrutinise the internal dynamics in the triad of EU citizenship, citizenship rights and the resulting vertical delimitation of powers in Europe, analysing the far-reaching constitutional implications. Linking the constitutional question of federalism and citizenship, the volume establishes an innovative new framework where these rights become agents and rationales of European integration and legal change, located beyond the context of the internal market and free movement. It maps the role of citizenship in this shifting landscape, outlining key options for a Europe of the future.

This collection marks the rich legacy of Professor Laurence W. Gormley's scholarship in the field of EU internal market law, providing a definitive critical appraisal of all the key aspects of the internal market, with an emphasis on goods and judicial protection; Professor Gormley's expert fields. Forty chapters deal with constitutional aspects of the EU internal market, the free movement of goods, persons and services, EMU, public procurement and competition law, institutional and procedural dimensions, and the EU's external relations, which includes matters relating to Brexit. The broad theme of the book, reflecting the many interests of Professor Gormley, will appeal to scholars, students and practicing lawyers. Dealing with both classic, foundational aspects of the EU internal market as well as highly topical matters, such as Brexit, this book will be a most welcome addition to every engaged legal scholar's library, thereby celebrating the legacy of a mentor and dear friend.

It is clear that the current crisis of the EU is not confined to the Eurozone and the EMU, evidenced in its inability to ensure the compliance of Member States to follow the principles and values underlying the integration project in Europe (including the protection of democracy, the Rule of Law, and human rights). This defiance has affected the Union profoundly, and in a multi-faceted assessment of this phenomenon, The Enforcement of EU Law and Values: Ensuring Member States' Compliance, dissects the essence of this crisis, examining its history and offering coping methods for the years to come. Defiance is not a new concept and this volume explores the richness of EU-level and national-level examples of historical defiance - the French Empty Chair policy-, the Luxembourg compromise, and the FPOE crisis in Austria - and draws on the experience of the US legal system and that of the integration projects on other continents. Building on this legal-political context, the book focuses on the assessment of the adequacy of the enforcement mechanisms whilst learning from EU integration history. Structured in four parts, the volume studies (1) theoretical issues on defiance in the context of multi-layered legal orders, (2) EU mechanisms of acquis and values' enforcement, (3) comparative perspective on law-enforcement in multi-layered legal systems, and (4) case-studies of defiance in the EU.

Kalin and Kochenov's Quality of Nationality Index (QNI) ranks the objective value of all nationalities as legal statuses of attachment to states. Using a wide variety of strictly quantifiable data to gauge the opportunities presented and limitations imposed by nationalities on their holders, the QNI provides a comprehensive ranking of the intrinsic quality of each citizenship status in the world. Both the internal value (economic opportunities, human development and peace and stability) and the external value (including the number and quality of visa-free travel and, crucially, settlement destinations) of all the nationalities in the world are measured, only to reveal the reality that the quality of nationalities is not correlated with the prestige of the issuing states. Beautifully produced, richly illustrated and accompanied by insightful expert commentary, the QNI is the seminal reference for the citizenship aficionados. It is also an invaluable tool to illustrate the huge discrepancies in the value of the nationalities of the world: showcasing first-hand the unequal distribution of rights and opportunities which different nationalities bring to their holders. The full QNI dataset on which this work is based is available in open access on Mendeley.

The story of citizenship as a tale not of liberation, dignity, and nationhood but of complacency, hypocrisy, and domination. The glorification of citizenship is a given in today's world, part of a civic narrative that invokes liberation, dignity, and nationhood. In reality, explains Dimitry Kochenov, citizenship is a story of complacency, hypocrisy, and domination, flattering to citizens and demeaning for noncitizens. In this volume in the MIT Press Essential Knowledge series, Kochenov explains the state of citizenship in the modern world. Kochenov offers a critical introduction to a subject most often regarded uncritically, describing what citizenship is, what it entails, how it came about, and how its role in the world has been changing. He examines four key elements of the concept: status, considering how and why the status of citizenship is extended, what function it serves, and who is left behind; rights, particularly the right to live and work in a state; duties, and what it means to be a "good citizen"; and politics, as enacted in the granting and enjoyment of citizenship. Citizenship promises to apply the attractive ideas of dignity, equality, and human worth-but to strictly separated groups of individuals. Those outside the separation aren't citizens as currently understood, and they do not belong. Citizenship, Kochenov warns, is too often a legal tool that justifies violence, humiliation, and exclusion.

The gradual legal and political evolution of the European Union has not, thus far, been accompanied by the articulation or embrace of any substantive ideal of justice going beyond the founders' intent or the economic objectives of the market integration project. This absence arguably compromises the foundations of the EU legal and political system since the relationship between law and justice-a crucial question within any constitutional system-remains largely unaddressed. This edited volume brings together a number of concise contributions by leading academics and young scholars whose work addresses both legal and philosophical aspects of justice in the European context. The aim of the volume is to appraise the existence and nature of this deficit, its implications for Europe's future, and to begin a critical discussion about how it might be addressed. There have been many accounts of the EU as a story of constitutional evolution and a system of transnational governance, but few which pay sustained attention to the implications for justice. The EU today has moved beyond its initial and primary emphasis on the establishment of an Internal Market, as the growing importance of EU citizenship and social rights suggests. Yet, most legal analyses of the EU treaties and of EU case-law remain premised broadly on the assumption that EU law still largely serves the purpose of perfecting what is fundamentally a system of economic integration. The place to be occupied by the underlying substantive ideal of justice remains significantly underspecified or even vacant, creating a tension between the market-oriented foundation of the Union and the contemporary essence of its constitutional system. The relationship of law to justice is a core dimension of constitutional systems around the world, and the EU is arguably no different in this respect. The critical assessment of justice in the EU provided by the contributions to this book will help to create a fuller picture of the justice deficit in the EU, and at the same time open up an important new avenue of legal research of immediate importance.