So much was at stake for Italy, its political class and its economy, and for the European Union (EU) and its member states in the country’s failed referendum on constitutional reform. In the EU, Germany is a particularly sensitive case. The relations between Germany and Italy are a focal point in Europe. They used to be in an asymmetric, albeit comforting, equilibrium.
It is not an easy task to talk about a topic like Europe’s justice deficit. As the book we are going to discuss is on Europe and edited by lawyers, I should feel comfortable. But it has such an enormous range. It addresses Europe as a whole in a perspective which is both under-theorised and under-discussed.
„Wie haben wir gewählt? Aber haben wir wirklich gewählt – oder hat das Volk gewürfelt?“ Niklas Luhmanns Sarkasmus in der FAZ am 22.10.1994 betraf die Bundestagswahl jenes Jahres. Schwarz/Gelb hatte gegen Rot/Grün knapp obsiegt. Luhmanns Kommentar liest sich vergnüglich – und enthält Diagnosen von erstaunlicher Passgenauigkeit für das europäische Wahlereignis des Jahres 2014: Di …
“Die Wirtschaft ist das Schicksal” (the economy is our destiny) – this insight of Walter Rathenau, politician and industrialist, the white hope of the young Weimar Republic, murdered in 1922, is of disquieting topicality. For more than a decade, we have witnessed a veritable boom of European constitutionalism which sought to pave the way towards an ever closer and ever more democratic Union.
“Die Wirtschaft ist das Schicksal” (the economy is our destiny) – this insight of Walter Rathenau, politician and industrialist, the white hope of the young Weimar Republic, murdered in 1922, is of disquieting topicality. For more than a decade, we have witnessed a veritable boom of European constitutionalism which sought to pave the way towards an ever closer and ever more democratic Union.
