RICERCA ITALIANA     

National Institutions and European Constitution.
Comparative analysis of the Member States' institutions in the European constitutional framework: operative potentials, adequacy problems and reciprocal adaptation.

Università Commerciale "Luigi Bocconi" - Milano

Abstract

This project has the aim of addressing the problems (and related solutions) encountered in the 25 member states following the approval of the European Constitutional treaty. This will be done with specific reference to the constitutional articulation, structures and procedures provided for in the Treaty. This will be done in a comparative perspective. This is the aim of the project therefore each research unit will have specific topics to deal with which are related to the more important institution of the European Union and functions of the constitutional importance. The topics have been chosen, on one hand, by evaluating the Constitutional Treaty and the problems that emerge in terms of domestic law especially with regard to the integration between national and community institutions and, on the other hand, by addressing the problems and prospects that have emerged since the adoption of the European Constitution.
1. The research unit from the University of Teramo will examine the role of the national Parliament of the 25 member states of the European Union in the light of the Constitutional Treaty and the annexed protocols. In particular the unit will examine: the reinforcement of information channels to the national parliament without the intervention of the respective governments; inter-parliamentary cooperation and involvement of national parliament in the European legislative procedures.
2. Still in the context of the European Constitutional Treaty, the >>>

Principal Investigator

Giuseppe Franco FERRARI Università Commerciale "Luigi Bocconi" MILANO

Research Objectives

The research intends to analyze and systematically compare problems and perspectives within EU Member States with regard to the relationship between constitutional structures and the ones foreseen by the Treaty. The analysis will follow two directions, considering on one side the political and institutional role the former are called to play in the latter; on the other side procedural and organizational solutions which can be find in each system. To this aim, the choice falls on a "transversal" method, to be conducted (not by country, but) by large subject areas, identifying the main institutions and functions with a constitutional relevance (according to a parallelism between classical state's articulations and new EU ones). Such a method finds its confirmation in the choices made by the European Convention and the intergovernmental Conference. At the foundations, there are the same language and technicality, which allow a better scientific confrontation and a productive elaboration of solutions. Nevertheless, it is evident that diversities among national institutional structures make it difficult to create a perfect "joint" with the corresponding European structures and procedures. Considering and comparing the national profiles who are interested in the said "joint", the research wants to define the most realistic perspective to study such a complicated European order.
In details, subject lines have been found, on one side, through the areas where indications about >>>

Timescale

24 months

National and international background

The process of "constitutionalization" of the European Union represents without any doubt the most relevant event in contemporary history. It also represents the most interesting subject for human sciences researchers and jurists in particular, especially within public law, considering the clear and profound questions which arise at the cognitive and practical level, as well as at the theoretical one.
Recently, it has provoked within the relative scientific-disciplinary fields a very lively flourishing of research initiatives and debates (sector studies, miscellaneous volumes, conferences): maybe late, due to a certain general skepticism until a few months ago, but currently very popular and clearly growing, thanks to the final approval of the project for a "Treaty which adopts a Constitution for Europe". However, even though the Italian juridical science has reacted with a special activism, the comparative dimension has been less extensively explored (with reference to the systematic study of orientations, potentials and problems within member states). Whereas, due to the "integrationist" perspective in the creation of a European constitutional order, such a study-method seems to go beyond the usual process of acquiring critical and practical knowledge, through a comparison of experiences and solutions from different legal systems. In our case, indeed, such experiences and solutions are not only going to be compared with each other, but also to converge into an >>>