Forschungsprojekt

Towards the Societal Theory of Constitutional Pluralism: Common Values and the EU-Belarus Border Crisis

The project builds a theoretical framework for the pluralist interpretation of EU common values in the context of systemic violations of migrant rights. Constitutional pluralism has been one of the dominant theoretical narratives about public law in the European Union since the 1990s. It has attempted to grasp the unsettled relations between the EU and national legal orders, emphasizing their overlapping interpretive perspectives and the difficulty of determining the final constitutional authority in Europe. Yet the very proponents of this theory admit that it has notoriously focused on judicial actors and disagreements between apex courts while largely neglecting the related societal and political aspects of pluralism.

The project treats the ongoing crisis of migration and asylum law and the response of EU institutions as a relevant case study to develop a theoretical framework for the societal version of constitutional pluralism in the EU. The situation on EU borders has mobilized actions by various public and societal actors: NGOs, groups of lawyers, ombudspersons, and parliamentary groups. Meanwhile, the European Commission has been criticized for inaction and for greenlighting the restrictive policies of Member States. In this regard, non-judicial actors may serve as local interpreters and guardians of EU common values. They may play the role of a specific interpretive community trying to give effect to supranational law in the context of the border crisis.