Two constitutionalisms? A comparison of British and French government attempts to justify the Constitutional Treaty

Abstract: One lesson of the failed Constitutional Treaty was that the European Union is unlikely to be an exception to a general rule that attempts to constitutionalize polities according to liberal democratic values provoke disagreement about the relative weight that should be given to the empowerment or the constraint of institutions. Just how that cleavage developed in practice is illustrated using a discourse analysis of attempts by the British and French governments to justify the Constitutional Treaty.