Judging European Democracy The Role and Legitimacy of National Constitutional Courts in the EU Oxford Studies in European Law Series

In several EU Member States, constitutional courts have reviewed European law on its compatibility with national constitutional law. These judgments deal with issues of major importance such as EU democratic legitimacy, the protection of fundamental rights, and the status of national sovereignty within the EU. Yet should national courts decide such issues of key constitutional significance for the EU? Or is it more democratic to leave these matters to political institutions that represent Europe's citizens and are politically accountable to them? In Judging European Democracy, Nik de Boer argues that the national courts' review of European law can actually constrain democratic debate over the EU's constitutional underpinnings. Rather than opening up a space for discourse or addressing democratic problems with the EU's decision-making process, national courts risk taking sides in good faith political disagreements among elected legislators about constitutional questions relating to the EU, thus distorting, rather than protecting, the democratic decision-making process. Judging European Democracy uniquely combines constitutional and political theory with an in-depth case study of the German Constitutional Court, the EU's most authoritative constitutional court. Based on an extensive analysis of parliamentary debates, EU policy documents, and interviews with politicians, policymakers, and constitutional court judges, the case study shows how the German Constitutional Court has distorted political debate and democracy in the EU. Scholars, practitioners, and policymakers involved in political theory, political science, EU constitutional law, and European integration will find this book compelling.

Nik de Boer is Assistant Professor of constitutional law at the University of Amsterdam and a member of the editorial board of the European Constitutional Law Review. He received a PhD from the University of Amsterdam and has held visiting positions at the European Court of Justice, Harvard Law School, and at the Center for Global Constitutionalism of the Berlin Social Science Centre (WZB). Previously, he was a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Amsterdam Centre for Contemporary European Studies (ACCESS EUROPE) and an Assistant Professor of financial law at the University of Amsterdam.