Workshop

European Constitutional Pluralism and the Constitution of the Union

WP 2 - Constitutional politics 

WP 2 events

Madrid, 10-11 November 2011

Venue:  Center for Political and Constitutional Studies (CEPC), Plaza de la Marina Española, 9

Organised by Carlos Closa, Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), Madrid

Workshop summary (D68) (pdf)

This is the concluding workshop of RECON's work package 2, which deals with (a) the constitutionalisation of the EU, (b) the Europeanisation of national constitutions, and (c) comparisons of constitutionalism in the EU and in other selected entities.

This broad agenda has been pinned down to five related lines of research: First, the assessment of established constitutional theories of European integration; second, the reconstruction of European constitutional practice; third, the analysis of constitutional adaptations at the national level; fourth, the comparative analysis of national ratification processes; and fifth, the examination of the prospects for supranational democracy in Europe by studying the constitutionalisation of the EU.

Read more in the workshop outline.

Taken together this research endeavour provides necessary input to the assessment of how constitutional factors respectively increase or decrease the democratic legitimacy of the supranational and the national levels in relation to each of the RECON conceptions of democracy, and to the task of determining which RECON conception European constitutional practice speaks to and how well the processes and the results reflect democratic requirements.

Read more on the research objectives of WP 2  and on the overall research objectives of RECON.

Programme (download)

Thursday 10 November 2011
10:30-11:15	Registration
11:15-11:30	Opening remarks
First session: Theorising EU constitutionalism
11:30-12:00	The theory of constitutional synthesis: A constitutional theory for a democratic European Union John Erik Fossum, ARENA, University of Oslo, and Agustín José Menéndez, University of León
12:00-12:30	Conflicting constitutional laws and constitutional pluralism in an assymetric world Rainer Nickel, Johann Wolfgang Goethe University Frankfurt
12:30-13:00	Discussant: Paul Blokker, University of Trento
13:00-13:30	Debate
Second session: EU democracy and the Lisbon Treaty changes
16:00-16:30	National parliaments in the European security policy: Governments' allies, independent players or transnationally networked actors? Aleksandra Maatsch, CEuS, University of Bremen
16:30-17:00	Problems of compound representation after Lisbon Christopher Lord, ARENA, University of Oslo
17:00-17:30	Discussant: Ulrike Liebert, CEuS, University of Bremen
17:30-18:00	Debate
Friday, 11 November 2011
Third session: Constitutional reform or treaty change?
10:00-10:30	Unanimity: On the legitimacy of a locking rule Carlos Closa, Spanish National Research Council (CSIC)
10:30-11:00	Can the EU referendum genie be put back in the bottle? Ben Crum, VU Amsterdam, and Saskia Hollander, Radboud University Nijmegen
11:30-12:00	Discussant: Bruno de Witte, University of Maastricht
12:00-12:30	Debate
12:30-13:00	Closing panel

For more information, please contact Carlos Closa, CSIC (carlos.closa[at]cchs.csic.es)