Law, Democracy and Solidarity in a Post-national Union: The Unsettled Political Order of Europe

To many, the rejections of the Constitutional Treaty by Dutch and French voters in 2005 came as a shock. However, given the many tensions and the many unresolved issues it was quite unsurprising. The challenges facing the Constitutional debate go to the core of the European integration process as they have to do with the terms on which to establish a post-national political order.

This book deals with four themes which make up the main sources of the ‘constitutional crisis’:

• The problem of the rule of law in a context of governance beyond the nation state
• The problem of the social deficit of the Union
• The problem of identity and collective memories
• The problem of institutionalizing post-national democracy.

These themes constitute the unfinished agenda of the European integration process. Law, Democracy and Solidarity in a Post-national Union is based on the efforts of a collection of top scholars in the fields of Law, Political Science, Sociology and Economics, and will appeal to students and scholars of political science, the European Union and European studies.

Erik O. Eriksen is Professor of Political Science and director of ARENA, Centre for European Studies at the University of Oslo, Norway.

Christian Joerges is Professor of European Economic Law at ZERP, Centre for European Law and Politics at the University of Bremen, Germany.

Florian Rodl is Research Fellow at ZERP, Centre for European Law and Politics at the University of Bremen, Germany.