Is constitutional finality feasible or desirable? On the cases for European constitutionalism and a European Constitution

Abstract:

This paper inquires into the nature of constitutionalism in the European Union and exposes its character as distinctly different from at least some of the descriptive and normative approaches to a 'constitution for 2004' that currently proliferate. The paper portrays constitutionalism as a subtle and intrinsically ambiguous balancing process, using the evolution of the EC legal order as an illustration of the wider pattern according to which the exercise and perhaps the very nature of State power in Europe has been moderated without the need to superimpose a new but geographically larger State at European level. This leads to anxiety that the pursuit of 'constitutional finality' is capable of imperilling the very foundations of the system, by robbing it of its adaptive character.