Joseph Weiler, Eric Stein, and the Transformation of Constitutional Law

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2014

Abstract

This short essay takes a fresh look at Joseph Weiler’s classic article "The Transformation of Europe," situating that piece in a line of scholarship that begins with the work of Eric Stein and culminates in current scholarship on constitutional pluralism.

The essay provides a critical analysis of how "The Transformation of Europe" used the idea of "constitutionalism." In particular, it appears "The Transformation of Europe" deployed that idea in a more limited "rule-of-law" sense, not in a broader "generative" sense that takes the emancipation of European governance from the strict service of the Member States as key to the claim of constitutionalism. More properly understood in this broader sense, constitutionalism in Europe calls for a history that accounts for such emancipation, and demands a present politics commensurate with such a far-reaching claim of governance. Ultimately, the broad view of constitutionalism in Europe suggests a development with implications beyond Europe as well: the transformation of constitutional law.

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