Europeanization and Constitutionalization: The Challenging Impact of a Double Transformative Process on French Law

Summary:

This article discusses the impact of the European Union (EU) legal order and European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) system on French law as well as the phenomenon of ‘constitutionalization’.

Constitutionalization of the EU means the ‘step-by-step transformation of the EC/EU into a political system which rests on a constitutional basis’, in brief the ‘emergence of European constitutional law within the European legal order’. The European construction in its widest sense, whether referring to the integration of the EU or the development of the ECHR system, has given rise to interesting processes, namely a process of Europeanisation and a process of constitutionalization.