Suchergebnisse

The paper considers 'octroyed', 'conceded' or 'granted' constitutions of 19th century Europe whose common roots are to be found in the French 'Charte constitutionnelle' of 1814. These Charters stem from a paternalistic process of domestic constitution-making engaged unilaterally by a monarch possessing the de facto constituent power and exercising it without the direct involvement of a body representing the people. Such octroyed constitutions, which are of course to be opposed to democratically established ones, show nevertheless a number of specific characteristics which distinguish them also from 'imposed constitutions' in the usual sense. The expression 'constitutional octroy' should not be used as a synonym for any process leading to an 'imposed Constitution'. The contribution aims to develop and to validate or invalidate the value of a series of distinctive criteria and possible elements of a definition of 'octroyed' or 'granted' constitutions in order to underline their specificity.

Luxembourg is a well-integrated member state whose EU membership relies however on poorly developed constitutional foundations. This is yet to be changed by a major constitutional overhaul that is expected to come to an end in 2018. Three patterns must be born in mind to understand the country's constitutional culture: the Constitution had been somewhat forgotten, its political system functions according to the idea of a 'consensus democracy' and its leading political principle is pragmatism. The only limit to further steps of EU integration is the requirement of a 2/3 majority within Parliament in order to approve any competence transferring treaty. I the pure monistic tradition the domestic legal order is conceived in a way to avoid conflicts with international or EU law. EU norms enjoy full primacy even vis-à-vis constitutional rules.

Recent examples of constitutional amendments in Iceland and Ireland and the current debates in Scotland and Catalonia regarding referendums on regional autonomy have stimulated a renewal in academic research on the involvement of the people in constitution making and constitutional amendment including the question - raised recently in Switzerland – how to avoid that referendums bring about unlawful restrictions to fundamental rights. This raises a more general question of how to reconcile the basic principles of (direct) democracy, the rule of law and fundamental rights. Such questions are also relevant for the legal situation in Luxembourg marked by the ongoing procedure of constitutional restatement, which was initiated in April 2009. The government decided indeed to submit several questions to a consultative referendum in 2015 before pursuing the parliamentary procedure and come to a final, decisive, referendum on the amendment proposal in 2016. This develop is part of a broader tendency to introduce, in Luxembourg and elsewhere, elements of direct democracy such as referendums, citizens' initiatives and online petitions into political systems organized as representative democracies. The roundtable aims to identify and discuss the main procedural, legal and theoretical problems raised in general by popular consent in the field of constitutional change.

Application of the EU Charter of fundamental rights to member states

L'accès des étudiants, enfants de travailleurs frontaliers, aux aides financières pour études supérieures - libre circulation des travailleurs - travailleurs frontaliers - avantages sociaux - discrimination indirecte -

EU Member State status – Member statehood – The idea of an "Integrated State" – Impact of EU membership on the concepts and substance of national constitutional law – Europeanization of member state's constitutional law – European constitutional law understood as Europeanized national constitutional law – European functions of constitutional organs – How to protect fundamental rights in a European area characterized by the overlaying of legal sources – The concept of "higher law" within the national legal order – A Union of Constitutionally Integrated States

In the history of constitutional changes in Europe, the making of a new constitution is often linked to violent incidents like a revolution, a coup d'état or a war. That is why the change of the constitution was mostly preceded by a change of the holder of the constituent power. The Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, however, is currently engaged in a process of constitution making in compliance with the revision procedure established by the existent document. The Constitution of the Grand Duchy, one of the oldest constitutional documents in Europe still in force, is undergoing a far-reaching revision aiming at a general overhaul.1 According to the parliamentary committee in charge, this revision shall finally give birth to a 'new' constitution, meaning that a modified and updated edition of the constitution shall be published in the national official journal (Mémorial). The revised text will then be considered as the Constitution of 2013 or, more likely, of 2014. The Constitution of 1868 is to be repealed. After the previous charters from 1841, 1848 and 1856 and the present text from 1868, it would thus become the fifth constitution of the Grand Duchy. As constitutional history also shows, this would not be the first time that Luxembourg adopts a new constitution following the formal amendment procedure foreseen by the previous document.2 Local politicians and lawyers seem to consider that the academic distinction between 'constitution making' by the will of an original pouvoir constituant and 'constitutional revision' through a parliamentary procedure prescribed by the constitution itself represents rather a gradual difference than a fundamental one. A number of good reasons convinced the Committee on Institutions and Constitutional Affairs of the Chamber of Deputies to introduce on 21 April 2009 a revision proposal aiming to modify and re-arrange the out-dated Constitution of 1868. While several initiatives for a general revision of the Constitution have been undertaken since the 1970s, none has been successful. Only fractional revisions were adopted in a century and a half. Between 1919 and 2009, no less than thirty-four amendments are listed, the last dating from 12 March 2009. Having occurred at different times and on various aspects, they have certainly undermined the coherence of the initial text. Nonetheless, the Constitution still includes a majority of provisions dating back to its origins. The main reasons put forward by the drafters of the revision proposal are: first, to modernize a terminology somewhat out-dated; second, to adapt the legal text to the political reality by re-writing the constitution and make it coincide with the 'living constitution' as reflected in the functioning of institutions, and third, to incorporate into the written constitution provisions relating to succession to the throne currently contained in a legal document of uncertain value, namely the Family Compact of the House of Nassau (Nassauischer Erbfolgeverein) of 1783. Almost four years after its launch, this amendment procedure, still far from being accomplished, is now, in February 2013, in a sufficiently advanced stage to allow some general commentaries. Given the limited format of this country report, the following remarks will focus on a brief presentation of the applicable revision procedure and a provisional scrutiny of some of the most substantial amendments under discussion.

Champ d'application de la Charte des droits fondamentaux - Union européenne - espace européen des droits fondamentaux - CEDH - principe de coexistence - mise en oeuvre du droit de l'Union - Akerberg Fransson - Melloni - CJUE - Charte des droits fondamentaux de l'Union européenne - Article 51 CDF - Wachauf - E.R.T. -

As it is obviously impossible for the modern 'demos' to assemble in order to take political decisions, democratic representation is an inevitable tool in large democracies. Representatives have to stand for and to act for the people as a whole. Accordingly, the principle of representative or parliamentary democracy is a fundamental constitutional principle shared by all the Member States of the Union. Democracy doubtlessly works on the national level; the Member States' decisional powers, however, are fading with the constant transfer of competences towards the European level. This leads to a system of European 'multi-level governance' with wide consequences for the linkage between the represented peoples of the Member States and their representatives on both national and European levels.

La conférence intergouvernementale sur la révision du traité sur l'Union européenne qui s'est terminée les 16 et 17 juin 1997 avec le Conseil européen d'Amsterdam a ranimé un vaste débat doctrinal sur la question de savoir s'il convient de doter l'Union européenne d'une constitution. Le présent ouvrage se propose d'apporter une contribution à cette réflexion par l'étude du droit des Communautés et de l'Union européenne selon une approche "constitutionnaliste", qui fait apparaïtre le caractère constitutionnel du droit communautaire originaire à travers l'étude de ses sources formelles et matérielles. Ce droit s'insère néanmoins dans une évolution plus vaste caractérisée par l'émergence d'un "droit constitutionnel européen" qui implique aussi les constitutions des Etats européens et la Convention européenne des droits de l'homme. L'existence, la formation et le contenu du droit constitutionnel européen sont successivement traités dans la sphère de l'Union européenne. La première partie du livre concerne la notion mème de "constitution européenne". Peut-on légitimement parler d'une constitution là où il n'y a pas d'Etat ? Après avoir cerné la notion de constitution dans une perspective historique et dans son contexte actuel, l'ouvrage examine la pertinence d'une transposition de la notion de constitution hors du cadre étatique et présente les principales composantes du droit constitutionnel européen en émergence ainsi que leurs interrelations. La seconde partie est consacrée à l'analyse des sources formelles du droit constitutionnel des Communautés et de l'Union européenne. Elle a pour premier but de faire comprendre comment la charte constitutionnelle actuelle de la Communauté a pu s'élever sur la base des traités fondateurs qui forment son fondement conventionnel tout en s'enrichissant dans un processus de développement constitutionnel alimenté par la jurisprudence et la pratique institutionnelle. Cette partie aborde ensuite les problèmes juridiques soulevés par l'élaboration d'une nouvelle constitution de l'Union européenne par la voie d'un acte constituant. Le troisième thème est celui des sources matérielles du droit constitutionnel des Communautés et de l'Union européenne. Sont mises en évidence les sources d'inspiration de ce droit à l'aide d'une présentation des principes constitutionnels les plus significatifs. A cet effet, l'ouvrage dresse un inventaire du corpus constitutionnel de l'Union européenne et discute la nature économico-politique de la constitution communautaire. L'examen des valeurs fondamentales et des principes structurels qui caractérisent l'Union européenne tels que les principes démocratiques, de la prééminence du droit, de la subsidiarité, de la loyauté communautaire et de l'équilibre institutionnel parachève la démonstration. Le livre est préfacé par Vlad Constantinesco, professeur à l'Université Robert Schuman de Strasbourg.