Neutralizing the Sovereignty Question - Compromise Strategies in Constitutional Argumentations about the Concept of Sovereignty for the European Integration
European Constitutional Law Review, Vol. 3, pp. 375-397, 2006
17 Pages Posted: 29 Aug 2011 Last revised: 12 Nov 2011
Date Written: August 28, 2007
Abstract
The paper examines whether the compromise strategies applied originally for the internal aspect can be used ana-logically for the problems of the external aspect posed by European integration, or whether there are other conceptual ways to go. Its conclusion concerning the European sovereignty debate is that we should not try to answer the sovereignty question (i.e., the question on the conflict between European integration and national sovereignty), because every answer is unacceptable for at least one of the interested parties. Our lawyerly task is to construe a legal uncertainty as to the legal outcome of a conflict (by developing complicated conceptual constructs which make virtually impossible the straight use of the sovereignty argument) and to give practical methods how to avoid the conflicts, so no one risks the conflict but everyone rather cooperates.
Keywords: sovereignty, European Union, legal theory, constitutional law
JEL Classification: K10
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation