A Constitutional History of EU Law

The History of European Union Law: Constitutional Practice, 1950 to 1993 (Cambridge University Press), edited byBill Davies, American University , andMorten Rasmussen, University of Copenhagen , has been published.

This formative period of EU law witnessed an intense struggle over the emergence of a constitutional practice. While the supranational institutions, including the European Commission, the European Court of Justice and the European Parliament, as well as EU law academics helped to develop and promote the constitutional practice, member state governments and judiciaries were generally reluctant to embrace it. The struggle resulted in an uneasy stalemate in which the constitutional practice was allowed to influence the doctrines, shape and functioning of the European legal order that now underpins the EU, but a majority of member state governments rejected European constitutionalism as the legitimating principle of the new EU formed on basis of the Treaty of Maastricht (1992). The struggle and eventual stalemate over the constitutional practice traced in this book accounts for the fragile and partial system of rule of law that exists in the EU today.

--Dan Ernst. TOC after the jump.

History and theory – towards a new history of European law Morten Rasmussen

Part I. Supranational Institutions and Transnational Actors and the Battle over the Constitutional Practice of European Law:

1. Inside the European court of justice: a biographical approach Vera Fritz

2. At the vanguard of European constitutionalism: the role of the legal service of the European commission Sigfrido M. Ramírez Pérez

3. The European parliament and the constitutionalisation of European law Jan-Henrik Meyer

4. Academic allies: transnational European law academia and the development of the constitutional practice Rebekka Byberg

5. Intergovernmentalism on the rise – the council in the battle over the constitutional practice of European law Philip Bajon

Part II. Member State Reception of the Constitutional Practice of European Law

1. The solange admonition – the necessity of structural congruence between Germany and Europe Bill Davies

2. To be or not to be – France and European law Alexandre Bernier and Morten Rasmussen

3. Blazing a trail – the Netherlands and European law Karin van Leeuwen

4. A job for the civil servants – Denmark and European law Jonas Langeland Pedersen