Legitimacy and Governance Beyond the European Nation State: Conceptualising Governance in the European Union

1998 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 429-445 ◽  
Author(s):  
Caitriona Carter ◽  
Andrew Scott
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Nation State ◽  
The European Union ◽  
European Nation

The nadir of vital interests: Hannah Arendt and the Franco-German Armistice 1940

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-22
Author(s):  
Deborah Whitehall
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Political Thought ◽  
Hannah Arendt ◽  
Common Interest ◽  
Nation State ◽  
The European Union ◽  
International Lawyer ◽  
European Nation ◽  
Internal Fragmentation ◽  
Joint Purpose

Abstract Illusions of common interest and joint purpose falter when states choose to break up, as with the recent changes to the European Union, or according to more dangerous precipitants such as those which shaped the Franco-German Armistice 1940, 80 years ago as a detail of war. The latter bares the sudden end of the Franco-British alliance and holds an invitation from history to re-examine the troubling political, social and legal layers of the concept of the vital interests of states. That category opened to radically different interpretations for political and legal thinkers who witnessed the fall of France yet did not respond directly or immediately. Hannah Arendt’s theory of politics, conceived in the aftermath of war as a corrective to the internal fragmentation of the European nation-state, elucidates the instability of the concept of vital interests which underpinned international legal and political thought in the 1930s and 1940s and frustrates the co-operative relations between states. The problem pairs back, she says, to whether interests signify an associative technique or sword. Her invitation for legal thought is to challenge the expectation of rupture implicit in the juridical category by outlining an alternative that recovers the pacifistic function of law and implicates the international lawyer.

scholarly journals Constituent power and civil disobedience: Beyond the nation-state?

2018 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 49-66 ◽  
Author(s):  
William E Scheuerman
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Civil Disobedience ◽  
Conscientious Objection ◽  
Radical Democracy ◽  
The Political ◽  
Nation State ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Constituent Power ◽  
Constitutional Politics ◽  
Proper Interpretation

Radical democratic political theorists have used the concept of constituent power to sketch ambitious models of radical democracy, while many legal scholars deploy it to make sense of the political and legal dynamics of constitutional politics. Its growing popularity notwithstanding, I argue that the concept tends to impede a proper interpretation of civil disobedience, conceived as nonviolent, politically motivated lawbreaking evincing basic respect for law. Contemporary theorists who employ it cannot distinguish between civil disobedience and other related, yet ultimately different, modes of political illegality (e.g. conscientious objection, resistance, revolution). The essay also examines Jürgen Habermas’ recent contributions to a theory of mixed or dualistic (postnational) constituent power, conceding that Habermas avoids many theoretical and political ills plaguing competing radical democratic theoretical retrievals. Nonetheless, Habermas’ attempt to salvage the idea of constituent power as part of his reformist agenda for the European Union not only breaks with his earlier understandable skepticism about the idea but also risks trimming the admirably ambitious sails of his radical democratic interpretation of civil disobedience.

2. Constitutional Nature

2021 ◽  
pp. 41-72
Author(s):  
Robert Schütze
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
United Nations ◽  
International Organization ◽  
Political Organization ◽  
State Sovereignty ◽  
Nation State ◽  
The European Union ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
The Us ◽  
Conceptual Distinction

This chapter discusses the nature of the European Union, presenting two—opposing—‘federal’ traditions that have been competing with each other over the past 200 years. It begins by introducing the US federal tradition, which has historically understood a Union of States as a third form of political organization between international and national law. The chapter then moves to the newer German federal tradition. Insisting on the indivisibility of sovereignty, this second tradition ultimately led to the following conceptual distinction: a ‘Union of States’ is either an international organization—like the United Nations—or a nation State—like Germany or the United Kingdom. Finally, the chapter applies both theories to the European Union. From the perspective of the older US tradition, the European Union can be seen as a Federation of States. The German tradition, by contrast, reduces it to a (special) international organization. Which is the better theory here? If legal theories are meant to explain legal practice, one sees that the second theory—insisting on the idea of State sovereignty—runs into serious explanatory difficulties and should consequently be discarded. The European Union is indeed best understood as a ‘Federation of States’.

E-Migration

2013 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 18-31 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nihil Olivera
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Information Society ◽  
Social Practices ◽  
Nation State ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Information Goods ◽  
Integration Policies ◽  
Flow Of Information ◽  
Theoretical Reflection

Communication and social practices of migrants are changing the dynamics of integration policies. Terms like globalization or transnationalization denote (apparently) an increased flow of information, goods, and capital across nation-state borders. However, borders are open for transactions, not for people. Located in the research thematic area of the Information Society, this article presents some technological, geographical, and social (TGS) characteristics that create a space the author calls e-migration, where the intervention of technology in society produces changes never seen before. This article is a theoretical reflection that discussed a case study of integration and immigration policies of French e-migrants (from the European Union, EU) and Ecuadorians (non-EU) in Catalonia, Spain. The article concludes with a discussion of some implications for future empirical research on e-migration.

scholarly journals Cooperation in the Face of Transboundary Crisis: A Framework for Analysis

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 197-209 ◽  
Author(s):  
Donald Blondin ◽  
Arjen Boin
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Financial Crisis ◽  
Crisis Management ◽  
Research Question ◽  
Cyber Attacks ◽  
Nation State ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Environmental Threats ◽  
The Face ◽  
Crisis Responses

Abstract The nation state is discovering the limits of its crisis management capacities. The Ebola and Zika outbreaks, the financial crisis, the downing of flight MH17 over Ukraine, sinking ships overfilled with refugees, cyber-attacks, urban terrorism and existential environmental threats serve as strong reminders of the complex origins and transboundary dimensions of many contemporary crises and disasters. As these transboundary aspects of modern crises become increasingly manifest, the need for international, collaborative responses appears ever clearer. But that collaboration does not always emerge in time (or at all). Even in the European Union, which has various transboundary crisis management mechanisms in place, the willingness to initiate joint crisis responses varies. This observation prompted our research question: Why do states collaborate in response to some transboundary crises but not others? We bring together the crisis and collective action literatures to formulate a theoretical framework that can help answer this question. This article identifies crucial factors that facilitate a possible pathway toward a joint response.

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