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WHO IS THE GUARDIAN OF THE CONSTITUTION IN THE EUROPEAN UNION?
Bojan Kovačević
orcid.org/0000-0002-7292-0127
; Fakultet političkih nauka Univerziteta u Beogradu, Beograd, Srbija
Sažetak
Measures taken by the EU’s major decision-makers in order to confront the
public debt crisis provide evidence that the EU’s constitutional nature has
been changed. This compound political community whose legitimacy was
based on the fine balance between the need to establish more European unity
and the need to preserve political autonomy of member states, is now gradually
transforming into an imperial, centre – periphery model of governance.
The author analyses this development in the light of the guardian of the constitution
concept, developed in the works of Benjamin Constant and Carl
Schmitt. Regardless of changes of socio-historical circumstances, the guardian
of the constitution’s fundamental task is to determine the point that must not be
surpassed if the legitimacy of a political community is to be maintained.
In the context of the European integration process the question “Who
is the guardian of the constitution?” has deliberately been sidestepped. That
strategy, which has proven to be functionally rather successful, has been pushing
the EU towards its current systemic crisis. Long absence of a guardian
of the European treaties/constitution has eventually confronted the member
states with the choice between refusing to obey the centre’s decisions and conceding
of the responsibility for their citizens’ welfare to the European protoimperial
order. The empire concept used in this article is normatively neutral,
used only as a possible theoretical framework for explaining the new empirical
reality of the European integration process.
Ključne riječi
Guardian of the Constitution; Master of the Constitution; EU Court of Justice; European Council; EU Crisis; Democratic Deficit; Empire
Hrčak ID:
107657
URI
Datum izdavanja:
23.9.2013.
Posjeta: 1.773 *