The idea of constitutional identity has been central to the negotiation of authority between EU and national constitutional orders. Many national constitutional courts have declared that the reach of EU law is limited by certain core elements of the national constitution, often labelled 'constitutional identity'. With the rise of illiberal democracies within the EU, the idea of constitutional identity has increasingly come under criticism, being seen as easily embedded in authoritarian, nativist rhetoric and vulnerable to being abused. In The Abuse of Constitutional Identity in the European Union, Julian Scholtes provides novel insights into how European authoritarians have utilised the concept of constitutional identity to further their illiberal goals. Employing a comparative theoretical perspective, his book identifies the factors behind legitimate constitutional identity claims and critically analyses the ways in which these claims can be abused. Scholtes examines abuses of constitutional identity in three distinct theoretical dimensions: generative, substantive, and relational. The generative dimension looks at how constitutional identity claims come about, while the substantive dimension examines a claim's broader relation to a normative theory of constitutionalism. The relational dimension, on the other hand, considers how constitutional identity claims are advanced and whether they are employed as a means of constitutional dialogue or constitutional disengagement.

Law is fast globalizing as a field, and many lawyers, judges and political leaders are engaged in a process of comparative borrowing. But this new form of legal globalization has darksides: it is not just a source of inspiration for those seeking to strengthen and improve democratic institutions and policies. It is increasingly an inspiration - and legitimation device - for those seeking to erode democracy by stealth, under the guise of a form of faux liberal democratic cover. Abusive Constitutional Borrowing: Legal globalization and the subversion of liberal democracy outlines this phenomenon, how it succeeds, and what we can do to prevent it. This book address current patterns of democratic retrenchment and explores its multiple variants and technologies, considering the role of legitimating ideologies that help support different modes of abusive constitutionalism. An important contribution to both legal and political scholarship, this book will of interest to all those working in the legal and political disciplines of public law, constitutional theory, political theory, and political science.

The idea of constitutional identity has been central to the negotiation of authority between EU and national constitutional orders. Many national constitutional courts have declared that the reach of EU law is limited by certain core elements of the national constitution, often labelled 'constitutional identity'. With the rise of illiberal democracies within the EU, the idea of constitutional identity has increasingly come under criticism, being seen as easily embedded in authoritarian, nativist rhetoric and vulnerable to being abused. In The Abuse of Constitutional Identity in the European Union, Julian Scholtes provides novel insights into how European authoritarians have utilised the concept of constitutional identity to further their illiberal goals. Employing a comparative theoretical perspective, his book identifies the factors behind legitimate constitutional identity claims and critically analyses the ways in which these claims can be abused. Scholtes examines abuses of constitutional identity in three distinct theoretical dimensions: generative, substantive, and relational. The generative dimension looks at how constitutional identity claims come about, while the substantive dimension examines a claim's broader relation to a normative theory of constitutionalism. The relational dimension, on the other hand, considers how constitutional identity claims are advanced and whether they are employed as a means of constitutional dialogue or constitutional disengagement.

Over the past few years, 'national constitutional identity' has become the new buzzword in European constitutionalism. Much has been written about the concept involving the Member States' national constitutional identities: it has been welcomed for (finally) accommodating constitutional particularities in EU law, demonized for potentially disintegrating the EU, and wielded as a 'sword' by certain constitutional courts. Scholars, judges, and advocates in general have rendered the concept currently so fashionable and, yet, so ambivalent, that an in-depth analysis is warranted to put some order into the intense debate over constitutional identity. This collection brings together a series of contributions in order to shed some light into the dark corners of constitutional identity. To this end, a threefold approach has been followed: a conceptual or philosophical approach, an approach based on EU law, and an analysis of the case-law of several European courts. First, the book explores what constitutional identity means and who decides on it. Further, the contributions analyze (and at times unveil) the areas that might collide or at least interact with constitutional identity. Among other issues, the book touches upon EU law primacy , Article 53 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights, EU criminal law and the essential functions of the State, and the existence of an EU 'constitutional core' enjoyable and enforceable through EU citizenship. Finally, the book deals with the case-law of European courts on national constitutional identity, including the perspective of various national constitutional courts, such as those of Eastern and Central European Member States, the Court of Justice of the European Union, and the much-less analyzed European Court of Human Rights. (Series: Law and Cosmopolitan Values - Vol. 4)

Food, water, health, housing, and education are fundamental to human freedom and dignity, yet only recently have legal systems begun to secure these fundamental individual interests as rights. This book analyses the transformation of socio-economic rights into constitutional rights, and their impact on public law and constitutional theory.

Presents a critical outline and comparison of selected EU Member State constitutional identities in the context of EU multilevel constitutionalism.

"Argues that a constitution acquires an identity through experience--from a mix of the political aspirations and commitments that express a nation's past and the desire to transcend that past. It is changeable but resistant to its own destruction and manifests itself in various ways, as Jacobsohn shows in examples as far flung as India, Ireland, Israel, and the United States. Jacobsohn argues that the presence of disharmony--both the tensions within a constitutional order and those that exist between a constitutional document and the society it seeks to regulate--is critical to understnading the theory and dynamics of constitutional identity"--Jacket.