The Draft European Constitution was arguably both an attempt to constitutionalise the Union, re-framing that project in the language of the state, and an attempt to stretch the boundaries of constitutionalism itself, re-imagining that concept to accommodate the sui generis European Union. The (partial) failure of this project is the subject of this collection of essays. The collection brings together leading EU constitutional scholars to consider, with the benefit of hindsight, the purportedly constitutional character of the proposed Constitutional Treaty, the reasons for its rejection by voters in France and the Netherlands, the ongoing implications of this episode for the European project, and the lessons it teaches us about what constitutionalism really means.

Table Of Contents

1. Introduction

2. From the Years of the Convention to the Years of Brexit. Where Do We Go from Here? 

Giuliano Amato

3. Constitutionalisation without Constitution: A Democracy Problem 

Dieter Grimm

4. The EU's Constitutional Moment: A View from the Ground Up 

Kalypso Nicolaidis

5. Treaty Amendment, the Draft Constitution and European Integration 

Paul Craig

6. The European Constitution and Europe's Dialectical Federalism 

Erin F Delaney

7. The Two Europes 

NW Barber

8. The Competence Catalogue in the Treaty Establishing a Constitution and the Treaty of Lisbon: Improvement, but at a Cost 

Stephen Weatherill

9. The Charter of Fundamental Rights and the EU's Shallow Constitutionalism 

Dorota Leczykiewicz

10. The EU Constitution, Sovereignty and the Problem of Primacy 

Gunnar Beck

11. Europe's Constitutional Overture 

Neil Walker

12. The European Constitution and 'the Compulsion to Grand Politics' 

Richard Mullender

13. Recollections from and Reflections on the Making and Failure of the European Constitution 

Gisela Stuart