The constitutionalisation of European law from the van Gend judgement to the Maastricht treaty is one of the core legal and political struggles of European integration. While the eventual success of this process has largely been assumed by scholarship, this narrative is challenged on an empirical basis in this new volume edited by Morten Rasmussen (University of Copenhagen) and Bill Davies (American University). Based on extensive archival studies of both European institutions and a number of Member States, this volume suggests that the reality behind the myth is that the constitutional practice was not accepted with the Maastricht treaty. This has significant implications for our understanding of the history of European law, as well as for the type of doctrinal arguments that can reasonably be construed.
The book launch will include a presentation of the volume by one of the editors, Morten Rasmussen as well as one of the authors, Karin van Leeuwen (Maastricht University). Following prepared comments from Mala Loth (EURNOR/ARENA), Daniel Naurin (ISV) and Magnus Esmark (IOR) there will be an open discussion about the book.