Europe's Constitutional Mosaic

This book emerges from a series of seminars held at the Edinburgh Law School in 2008-2009. The seminars explored the complex constitutional arrangements of the European space as an inter-connected mosaic. There has been much recent debate concerning the constitutional future of Europe, focusing almost exclusively upon the EU in the context of the (failed) Constitutional Treaty of 2003-5 and, subsequently, the Treaty of Lisbon. The premise of the book is that this focus, while important, offers only a partial vision of the complex constitutional terrain of contemporary Europe. In addition, it is essential to explore other threads of normative authority within and across States, embracing: the internal challenges to State-level constitutional regimes, the growing jurisprudential assertiveness of the Council of Europe regime (in particular, through the European Convention on Human Rights), and Europe's ever thicker relations with broader international institutions, especially those of the UN. Together, these create increasingly dense networks of constitutional authority within the European space. This fluid and multi-dimensional dynamic is difficult to classify, and indeed may seem in many ways impenetrable, but that makes the academic challenge all the more important and pressing. Without this fuller picture, it becomes impossible to understand the legal context of Europe today or the prospects of ongoing changes. The book brings together a range of experts in law, legal theory, and political science from across Europe, in order to address these complex issues.

Neil Walker is Regius Professor of Public Law and the Law of Nature and Nations, Jo Shaw is Salvesen Chair of European Institutions and Stephen Tierney is Professor of Constitutional Theory. They are all based at the School of Law at the University of Edinburgh.