The Tangled Complexity of the EU Constitutional Process: The Frustrating Knot of Europe 2nd Edition

Offering a fresh view on the EU constitutionalisation process, the new edition of The Tangled Complexity of The EU Constitutional Process presents three main points: the idea of constitutional complexity, the tension between constitutional evolutionism and constitutional constructivism in the process of European integration, and the functional nature of conflicts in the evolution of the EU. Because of its prodigiousness, European law produces consternation among constitutionalists accustomed to traditional patterns of power. Yet, constitutional pluralism is under siege. Populist governments have abused constitutional-pluralistic concepts like those of national identity, and scholars have also criticised constitutional courts for the abuse of the national identity argument provoking a worrying escalation of constitutional conflicts.

This book argues that while constitutional conflicts have frequently been depicted as elements of disturbance along the path towards legal coherence, constitutional conflicts are physiological and might even be functional to the development of the European legal order, which should not be understood in a deterministic manner.

The new edition expands its scope of application beyond judicial interactions, to consider the role of the parliaments as actors of a complex legal system and will be of particular interest to academics and students in the disciplines of Law, International Relations, and Political Science.