Rethinking the Relationship between International, EU and National Law Consent-Based Monism ASIL Studies in International Legal Theory Series

The interdisciplinary embedding and novel conceptual approach offered in the book to address the relationship between legal orders offers a significant and original contribution to the literature. The first part of the book provides a critical account of dominant approaches to explain this relationship where theories of Kelsenian monism, dualism, legal pluralism and constitutionalism are criticized. In the second part, Kirchmair engages with an innovative idea by applying insights from social contract theory to the relationship between international, EU and Member State law and establishes his theoretical approach: Consent-Based Monism. The book focuses on the most important structural characteristics of the external relations law of the EU as well as the primacy of EU law in lieu of national constitutional identity which is demonstrated in part three.

Introduction: setting the stage; Part I. Common Theories on the Relationship of Legal Orders and their Flaws Concerning the EU Legal Order: 1. Dualism and Kelsenian monism; 2. Global legal pluralism and constitutionalism; 3. The 'Autonomy' of the EU Legal order as a self-standing theory?; 4. An Intermediate Conclusion; Part II. Consent-Based Monism: A Structural Answer: 5. The underlying understanding of Law; 6. The theory of consent-based monism; Part III. A Practical Application of Consent-Based Monism: 7. EU Law and member state law; 8. International Law and EU Law; Conclusion; Bibliography; Index.

Lando Kirchmair focuses on international, European, and national public law as well as legal philosophy. Currently he is Deputy Professor for National and International Public Law with a Focus on the Protection of Cultural Heritage based at the University of the Bundeswehr Munich. Inter alia he is interested in the interplay between the international, EU and Member State legal orders, the doctrine of sources of (international/EU) law, technology law, the protection of cultural heritage as well as law and interdisciplinarity.