The Jurisprudence of the European Court of Justice and the National (Constitutional) Courts and the Concepts of Sovereignty in the European Union: In or out of the shade of the Westphalian Paradigm?

Abstract

The book chapter analyzes the jurisprudence of the ECJ and the national (constitutional) courts regarding the issue of sovereignty in the EU, with a particular view on how that jurisprudence influences the understanding of the EU polity. It is argued that the jurisprudence of both ECJ and the national (constitutional) courts are decisively shaped by the so-called Westphalian paradigm on sovereignty. Although this paradigm serves as a common judicial denominator, it does not necessarily lead to an identical understanding of the sovereignty in the EU by both levels of courts, thus leading to different conceptualizations of the nature of the EU polity.