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The Role and Future of National Constitutions in European and Global Governance (CONSTEURGLOBGOV)
Start date: Jan 1, 2012, End date: Dec 31, 2017 PROJECT  FINISHED 

At a time when the discourse on constitutionalism has come to focus on the constitutionalisation processes at the European and global level, this project will turn the spotlight on national constitutions. It embarks on an analysis and rethinking of the role and future of national constitutions in the context where decision-making has increasingly shifted to transnational level. The project will have three objectives. The first objective is concerned with the role of constitutions internally within the state: the project assesses how credible the content of constitutions remains given the realities of European integration. To this end, it will undertake a comprehensive, comparative and issue-based analysis of EU-related amendments in national constitutions. The second objective concerns the role of constitutions externally with regard to European integration. While national constitutions have increasingly been regarded as a manifestation of sovereignty, and therefore representing values that are often viewed as parochial, the project will turn the focus on other values contained in the constitutions, such as protection of rights and the rule of law. It will explore constitutional courts’ judgements articulating the rights and values that mandate upholding at supranational level, and assess the responsiveness of the European Court of Justice with regard to such concerns. The third objective applies experiences from the EU context to the new research area of global governance. The project aims to assess whether the constitutional provisions on international treaties suffice to reflect the sheer extent to which decision-making has shifted to international institutions and global regulatory networks. It will also explore how constitutions could respond to the problems increasingly highlighted in the context of global governance in relation to legitimacy, democratic control, accountability and the rule of law.
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