Constitutionalism Without Constitution: Transnational Elites Between Political Mobilization and Legal Expertise in the Making of a Constitution for Europe (1940s−1960s)

By exploring how early political investments in favor of a European Constitution have been turned into a legal enterprise to constitutionalize the European treaties, this article analyzes the changing role of legal elites in the genesis of a European transnational order. At first, legal activities of constitution-making were closely linked to military issues and political mobilizations; later, the legal work of constitutionalization took a different path as a result of the process of differentiation of the European field of power and of the internal and contradictory logics of a newly created legal institution, the European Court of Justice (ECJ). By reconstructing the constitutionalization process, this article highlights the various types of elites then competing for the early definition of a European transnational order and, in particular, the capitals and representations of legal agents in the making of a Constitution for Europe.     

《欧盟宪法条约》框架下的欧盟机构改革

2004年 10月,欧盟各成员国在罗马签署了《欧盟宪法条约》,这标志着欧盟政治一体化进入了一个崭新的阶段。该条约涉及欧盟政治与经济生活的方方面面,其中最令人关注的莫过于其对欧盟机构体系所进行的改革。《欧盟宪法条约》对欧盟机构体系改革规定了诸多内容,但改革中仍存不足。     

论《欧洲宪法条约》对欧共体共同商业政策的改革

<欧洲宪法条约>(The Treaty Establishing a Constitution for Elarope,以下简称<宪法>)对现行欧盟法律制度进行了全方位的改革.     

Moment of Stasis: The Successful Failure of a Constitution for Europe

The 2005 French and Dutch negative votes on the Constitution open up a space of conceptualisation, not only of Europe's relation to its demos, but significantly to its failures. Through a critical analysis of mainly Niklas Luhmann's systems theory, the article proposes taking a distance from traditional constitutional dogmatics that are no longer capable of dealing with the paradox of contemporary society, and more specifically with the eventual resurgence of the European project as one of absence and stasis: the two terms are used to explain the need, on the one hand, to maintain the 'absent community' of Europe, and, on the other, to start realising that any conceptualisation of the European project will now have to take place in that space of instability and contingency revealed by the constitutional failure. The relation between law and politics, the location of a constitution, the distinction between social and normative legitimacy, the connection between European identity and demos, and the concept of continuity between constitutional text and context are revisited in an attempt to trace the constitutional failure as the constitutional moment par excellence.     

Does Europe Need a Constitution? Demos,Telos and the German Maastricht Decision

Abstract: Through a close reading of the Maastricht Decision of the German Federal Constitutional Court Weiler examines critically the so-called No-Demos Thesis according to which the absence of a European Demos precludes democratisation of the Union at the European level and requires the mediation of Member State institutions. He traces the roots of this thesis to Carl Schmitt and argues that it represents a failure of the Court to understand the Union in terms different from the Schmittian strand in German constitutional theory. He claims, inter alia, that the No Demos thesis is premised on an organic understanding of peoplehood deriving from the European Nation-State tradition which conflates nationality and citizenship and can, as a result, conceive of Demos only in statal terms. Weiler first presents an alternative view of the Union and of supranationalism and then offers a non organic view of Demos and argues for a ‘European’ notion of membership in which each individual would belong to multiple demoi defined in different ways.     

The Meaning of 'Natural Person' and the Impact of the Constitution for Europe on the Development of European Private Law

Abstract:  European codes of private law have traditionally commenced with a concept of the person. In the development of private law in the European Union, we require a modern concept of the person, one which goes beyond the idea of the bearer of economic rights, to one which embraces ideas of human rights and social solidarity, as found in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Nice Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union.     

维护宪法权威与修改宪法

我国现行宪法是好的,宪法的稳定是国家稳定的基础。但社会实践不断发展,宪法也要随着实践的发展而发展与完善,应该修改而不修改,不利于维护其权威。党的十六届三中全会为修改宪法指明了正确方向。     

The Legality of Self‐Constitution

An influential strand in recent action‐theory employs constitutivist arguments in order to present accounts of individual agency and practical identity (and of the normative requirements that are constitutive of these phenomena). I argue for an extension of this framework into the interpersonal realm, and suggest using it to reassess issues in jurisprudence. A legal system is an instantiation of the solution to the inescapable tasks of self‐constituting action and identity‐formation in the presence of other agents. Law's validity and normativity can be enlightened when the constitutivist approach considers the external prerequisites of individuals' self‐conceptions qua agents. More specifically, this argumentative strategy allows a reassessment of Fuller's “internal morality of law.” Whereas, pace Fuller, morally substantive conclusions cannot be derived from formal criteria of legality, there are unconditional normative requirements that constrain law.     

论党章与宪法的关系

文本意义上，党章与宪法分属不同规范体系，党章为全体党员的根本章程而宪法为全国各族人民的根本大法。调整党员内部关系是党章的本分，调整国家与公民之间的社会关系是宪法的本分。政治意义上，党章与宪法密不可分，二者的关系彰显着中国共产党执政权的合法性问题。人民主权理论是党章与宪法的政治契合，党章总纲与宪法序言是党章与宪法的文本契合。党章与宪法的契合途径表现为：党的活动必须立于宪法框架内；宪法的制订与修改须体现党章蕴含的政治价值与理念。     

On the Relationship between Constitution of CPC and Constitution

文本意义上,党章与宪法分属不同规范体系,党章为全体党员的根本章程而宪法为全国各族人民的根本大法.调整党员内部关系是党章的本分,调整国家与公民之间的社会关系是宪法的本分.政治意义上,党章与宪法密不可分,二者的关系彰显着中国共产党执政权的合法性问题.人民主权理论是党章与宪法的政治契合,党章总纲与宪法序言是党章与宪法的文本契合.党章与宪法的契合途径表现为:党的活动必须立于宪法框架内;宪法的制订与修改须体现党章蕴含的政治价值与理念.     

宪法的稳定性与稳定性的宪法——以中美宪法文本的比较为视角

宪法的稳定性既是维持宪政秩序有效运行的基础,也是宪法作为根本法的原则性和作为法律的规范性的具体要求。美国宪法具有较强的特定性,它是通过民众对宪法精神的敬畏与信仰,以及宪法文本的独特品质与最高法院的宪法解释等途径实现的。探索《美国宪法》稳定性的深层背景,检讨我国《宪法》文本的缺失与不足,对于我们如何处理宪法的稳定性与适应性的关系,完善我国的宪法解释与宪法修改制度,都具有十分重要的借鉴意义。     

宪法之本与中国宪法解释的原则

宪法之本,即宪法的基本规定性决定着宪法解释的原则,宪法是社会力量相妥协的产物、渗透着各种主体的利益诉求、蕴含着一定基本价值、同时又具有不断发展变迁的本质规定性。这决定了在宪法解释的过程中,特别是在中国目前特殊的政治和法律运行的环境下,要充分考虑到宪法解释的政治性和利益性原则、正义性和情理性原则、发展性和边界性原则,就此才能实现中国宪政实践过程中宪法解释的正确合理。     

The European Constitution: A Semiotics Analysis of Ideology, Identity and Global Commun in Present-Day Europe

This paper proposes an analysis of the European Constitution from the perspective of its conditions of possibility. The focus is on the conditions that subtend the European constitution, the conditions, the premises that make the European Constitution possible. In the present context of discourse “possibility” is understood in the sense of Kantian critique. But here critique is based on Reasonableness rather than on Reason—in fact a thesis orienting this essay is that the human being to survive and to survive well must quickly change from a rational animal into a reasonable animal. Is the European constitution possible? Where must we search for the necessary conditions that support the European constitution (1) in common historical and cultural traditions, in common practices, in common social behaviours or (2) merely in a shared decision, an accord, a contract, a convention? There exists a third possibility: the idea that Europe has no future without a European constitution founded on awareness that all European Nations participate in a common destiny, which in the era of globalization is the destiny the whole world, indeed of life over the whole planet. Such participation must be based on the logic of otherness and reasonableness of which the human being alone as a semiotic animal is capable. As a semiotic animal, that is, an animal capable of metasemiosis, reflection and critical consciousness, the human being is responsible for all of life over the planet.     

从限权到控权──宪法功能发展研究

近代宪法的主要功能是严格限制政府权力,限权政府理论推动了古代法律向近代法律制度的转变,从而推动了近代法律秩序的形成。现代宪法的功能主要表现为对政府权力以及其它可能破坏宪法秩序的社会团体权力进行控制,控制包括限制在内,只不过限制是控制的一种手段与方式之一,而不是现代宪法的主要功能。     

Secrets of the Political Constitution

Book reviewed in this article:
Adam Tomkins, The Constitution after Scott: Government Unwrapped     

论宪法能力

宪法能力意指作为一种规范的宪法在统摄政治资源、调控政治过程、规约政府行为以及导引社会价值等方面的资质及其影响力。宪法的涵摄力、规约力和导向力构成了宪法能力的三个核心要素;超验、经验和理念构成了宪法能力的三个基本渊源;制度正义导向力、法治政府型塑力和社会团结凝聚力分别构成了宪法本源性能力、本能性能力和本质性能力。面对其日益紧迫的时代使命,中国宪法的能力障碍也日益凸现,宪法能力建设也因此而成为一个具有时代意义的课题。