The Making of a European Constitution Judges and Law Beyond Constitutive Power

The Making of a European Constitution Judges and Law Beyond Constitutive Power Not only addressing European constitutional jurisprudence, but also the strategies and philosophies that judges and lawyers bring to bear when cre-ating it, The Making of a European Constitution investigates and promotes the sustainability of a theory or praxis of ‘procedural’ constitutionalism. Building upon European and American critical legal scholarship, Michelle Everson and Julia Eisner argue that constitutional adjudication has never been a neutral matter of mere judicial ‘identification’ of the val-ues, norms and procedures that each society seeks to concretise in its own body of constitutional law. Instead, a ‘mythology’ of comprehensive national constitutional settlement has obscured the primary legal constitutional conundrum that is created by the requirement that a judiciary must always adapt its constitutional jurisprudence to the evolving values that are to be found within any society; but must, at the same time, maintain the integrity and autonomy of the law itself. European judges and lawyers, having been denied recourse to all forms of constitutional mythology, provide us with an alternative model of con-stitutionalism; one that does not require a founding myth of constitutional settlement, and one which both secures the autonomy of law, as well as ensures dialogue between law and society. This occurs, however, not through grand theories of ‘constitutional adjudication’ but rather, as The Making of a European Constitution documents, through practical process. Michelle Everson is Professor of Law at Birkbeck College University of London. Julia Eisner has worked extensively as an academic assistant, specialising in empirical, interview-based research. The Making of a European Constitution Judges and Law Beyond Constitutive Power Michelle Everson and Julia Eisner First published 2007 by Routledge-Cavendish 2 Park Square,Milton Park,Abingdon,OX14 4RN,UK Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge-Cavendish 270 Madison Avenue,New York,NY 10016 A Glasshouse book Routledge-Cavendish is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group,an informa business © 2007 Michelle Everson and Julia Eisner This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2007. “To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.” All rights reserved.No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic,mechanical,or other means,now known or hereafter invented,including photocopying and recording,or in any information storage or retrieval system,without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Everson,Michelle. The making of a European Constitution : judges and law beyond constitutive power / Michelle Everson and Julia Eisner. p.cm. ISBN 978-0-415-43905-3 (hardback : alk.paper) – ISBN 978-0-203-93980-2 (e-book) 1.Constitutional law–European Union countries. 2.European Union.I.Eisner,Julia.II.Title. KJE4445.E98 2007 342.24–dc22 2007008686 ISBN 0-203-93980-8 Master e-book ISBN ISBN 10 (hb):0-415-43905-1 ISBN 13 (hb):978-0-415-43905-3 ISBN 10 (e-book):0-203-93980-8 ISBN 13 (e-book):978-0-203-93980-2 ... - tailieumienphi.vn