The Bonavero Institute of Human Rights, the Programme for the Foundations of Law and Constitutional Government, and the Public Law Discussion Group are delighted to host the launch of the book ‘The Constitutional Theory of the Federation and the European Union’ (OUP 2021) by Signe Rehling Larsen
(https://global.oup.com/academic/produ…). ‘The Constitutional Theory of the Federation and the European Union’ challenges the characterization of the European Union (EU) as a sui generis political association, by demonstrating that the EU is a federal union of states, or a ‘federation’. Larsen argues that the statist imaginary fails to capture what a ‘federation’ is, for it makes us see federal policies as either ‘confederal’ associations of sovereign states or sovereign federal states. However, the federation is not a ‘super state’ but a discrete political form with its own constitutional theory. It is characterized by a double political existence, a lack of internal hierarchy, and the internal absence, contestation, or repression of sovereignty. This book details the key aspects of federal constitutional theory and how this theory accounts for the EU’s constitutional form as well as the crises it has faced in recent years. Signe Rehling Larsen is joined by discussants Stephen Tierney (University of Edinburgh), Martin Loughlin (London School of Economics), Renáta Uitz (Central European University) and Nick Barber (University of Oxford). The discussion is chaired by Kate O’Regan (Director, Bonavero Institute of Human Rights).
