15 - Member States of the European Union, Constitutions, and Identity

Summary

This chapter gives a comparative overview of the preceding country studies in this volume, which deal with the relationship between national constitutional identity and EU law. In giving an overview, this chapter first discusses the sources of constitutional identity before turning to the actors involved in interpreting such sources and the methods used. This is followed by a discussion of the content of constitutional identity and how such content could be factually disturbed in one way or another. The chapter concludes by considering the ways in which a Member State can respond to disturbances of its identity and offers some thoughts on the problem of constitutional identity conflicts between the Member States and the EU.