The Emergence of European Society through Public Law : A Hegelian and Anti-Schmittian Approach

Abstract

Many Europeans struggle to understand where European Union-centred Europeanization has led them. The standard response—that their situation is sui generis, one of a kind—no longer holds. Brexit, conflicts over European financial transfers, immigration, or dubious judicial reforms in some Member States demand a more substantial answer. Against that background, this book frames European integration by reconstructing European public law in the light of Article 2 of the Treaty on European Union (TEU). According to Article 2 TEU, all Europeans are today part of one society. European integration may not have produced a European state or people, but it has helped to create a European society. This society is interwoven with European public law as the Treaty characterizes it with 12 constitutional principles. The book interprets this statement as the manifesto, identity, and constitutional core of a democratic society. Thus, Europeans should understand that European integration has ushered in a European democratic society. This approach takes the bull by the horns because democracy represents the key concept in the struggle to understand and develop our society. On that basis, the book goes through many of the great debates of European public law and presents them in a new and forward-looking light.