Constitutional Pluralism in the EU

The first full-length analysis of the major emerging branch of European constutional thought Provides a framework for understanding the substance of constitutional pluralism, its potential and limitations Aids the understanding of this often misunderstood body of scholarship on EU constitutionalism Provides a complete assessment against current and new criticisms Elaborates its own original vision and the refined basis on which pluralism can be considered the superior new approach within constitutional thought Where does the law and political power of any given territory come from? Until recently it was believed that it came from a single and hierarchical source of constitutional authority, a sovereign people and their constitution. However, how can this model account for the new Europe? Where state constitutions and the European Constitution, which are ultimately equally self-standing sources of constitutional authority, overlap heterarchically over a shared piece of territory. Constitutional pluralism is a new branch within constitutional thought that argues sovereignty is no longer the accurate and normatively superior constitutional foundation. It instead replaces this thought with its own foundation. It emerged on the basis of contributions by the leading EU constitutionalists and has now become the most dominant branch of European constitutional thought. Its claims have also overstepped the European context, suggesting that it offers historic advantages for further development of the idea of constitutionalism and world order as such. This book offers the first overarching examination of constitutional pluralism.Comprehensively mapping out the leading contributions to date and solving the complicated labyrinth they currently form, Klemen Jaklic offers a complete assessment against existing and new criticisms while elaborating his own original vision. Constitutional pluralism thus refined has the potential to rightfully be considered the superior new approach within constitutional thought. Readership: Scholars and students of European Law, Legal, Constitutional and Political Theory and international justice and democracy.

Introduction Part One: Mapping Analysis I: MacCormick and the Idea of Pluralism II: Epistemic Pluralism III: Substantive Pluralism IV: Interpretive and Participative Pluralism V: Institutional Pluralism Part Two: Assessment VI: Decoding the Branch VII: A True Novelty Part Three: The Superior Path VIII: Within the Branches of Pluralism IX: The Superior Conception of Pluralism X: Democracy's Third Coming Conclusion