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Constitutional Disintegration and Disruption: Withdrawal and Opt-Outs from the European Union

Constitutional Disintegration and Disruption: Withdrawal and Opt-Outs from the European Union

Author: Oliver Garner
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 9780198914105
Published In: May 2025
Format: Hardback
Jurisdiction: U.K. ? Disclaimer:
Countri(es) stated herein are used as reference only

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Description
Contents

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The United Kingdom's unprecedented withdrawal from the European Union in 2020 may be regarded as the first example of European 'disintegration'. This moment, however, was preceded by decades of 'disruption' as the UK, Ireland, and Denmark pursued opt-outs from the supranational constitutional order. Constitutional Disintegration and Disruption: Withdrawal and Opt-Outs from the European Union provides the first comprehensive analysis of these two constitutional phenomena.

The book presents the EU as an order that is legitimated by individuals playing a dual-role as both nationals of Member States and citizens of the Union; in turn, individuals are both democratic subjects and juridical objects. The EU Treaties have instituted a 'triptych' for the exercise of 'constituted constituent power' by these individuals: Article 49 TEU allowing accession, Article 48 TEU enabling amendment, and Article 50 TEU as a mechanism for the repatriation of power through withdrawal. Opt-outs are an iterative anomaly that have arisen through the retention of amendment power by representatives of Member State nationals. Reservations of constituent power have been operationalised in Protocols to the Treaties. By contrast, the withdrawal clause was proactively inserted into the Treaties as a sovereign right for Member State nationals subject to an orderly supranational procedure for the benefit of all EU citizens. The book presents narratives of disruption and disintegration that provide comprehensive historical overviews of how opt-outs and withdrawal arose and developed.

Constitutional Disintegration and Disruption concludes with criticism of the consequences of these phenomena for individuals, and proposes reforms to the EU Treaties that would enable citizens to more fully realise their dual-role in the European constitutional space.

1:Introduction

2:Constituent Power, the Treaty Triptych, and the Role of Individuals

3:Opt-Outs Protocols: Telos, Form, and Function

4:Pre-Brexit: A Narrative of Disruption

5:Article 50 TEU: Telos, Form, and Function

6:Brexit: A Narrative of Disintegration

7:The Normative Failings of Opt-Outs and Withdrawal

8:Reforming the Opt-Out Protocols and Article 50 TEU

9:Conclusion