Articles for category: “The Eurozone Crisis” – A Book Debate

„The Eurozone Crisis“: Reply by the Authors

Our book on Eurozone Crisis has been reviewed and commented by four distinguished experts in the field, profs Joerges and Ruffert as well as Drs Georgosouli and Jaros. The reviews show considerable variation in style and focus, but they all are based on a careful reading of our book and contain thoughtful comments. For this we want to express our gratitude. We comment first on some common themes of the reviews and then move on to a few more specific questions. Our conceptualization of the two layers of the European Economic constitution, the microeconomic and macroeconomic one, seems to have ... continue reading

12. April 2014

The Eurozone Crisis: Some reflections on economic sustainability and the issue of legitimacy

The Eurozone Crisis: A Constitutional Analysis by Kaarlo and Klaus Tuori is a welcome addition to the vast literature on the recent financial turmoil, the Eurozone crisis and the policy, legal and institutional reform of the European Union in their aftermath. The book consists of three parts. Part one introduces the reader to the main themes of the book, namely, the macroeconomic and the microeconomic layers of the European economic constitution, the causes of the recent financial crisis and the European response. Against this backdrop, part two focuses on the issue of constitutional mutation, exploring, in particular, the constitutionality of ... continue reading

12. April 2014

In Defence of „Good Intergovernmentalism“

Kaarlo Tuori’s and Klaus Tuori’s account of the the Eurozone crisis is an excellent analysis of all of its major constitutional issues. In the first chapters, the authors set the field in all necessary detail, embedding constitutional history in its economic context. They strongly focus on the distinction between two layers of Europe’s economic constitution, the microeconomic (laid down in the Treaty of Rome, and developed by the ECJ) on the one hand, and the macroeconomic layer (introduced with the Maastricht treaty) on the other hand. They correctly depict the macroeconomic constitution as a logical development of the microeconomic one ... continue reading

12. April 2014

EU Law Scholarship in Crisis: A Quest for Consistent Theory and Workable Doctrine

The spectacular events that shook the European Economic and Monetary Union in the past few years have left their footprints in EU law scholarship. The State debt crisis beginning with the announced threat of Greek default in winter 2009/2010 took away Articles 119 to 144 TFEU from the hands of a distinguished group of experts and incited most of EU legal scholars to take part in a vivid discussion. Maybe it is time to consolidate now. Is this achieved by the two Tuoris’ book? With respect, the answer is probably no. The central statement of the book is perfectly clear. The ... continue reading

12. April 2014

Where the Law Ends

“Die Wirtschaft ist das Schicksal” (the economy is our destiny) – this insight of Walter Rathenau, politician and industrialist, the white hope of the young Weimar Republic, murdered in 1922, is of disquieting topicality. For more than a decade, we have witnessed a veritable boom of European constitutionalism which sought to pave the way towards an ever closer and ever more democratic Union. These debates were intense. They were nevertheless characterised by a benign neglect of the constitutional dimensions of “the economic” and the failure to comprehend its political functions. There are, of course, exceptions. The authors of the “constitutional ... continue reading

12. April 2014

„The Eurozone Crisis“: Introduction by the Authors

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Our book on the Eurozone crisis is built on two central premises; a substantive one and a methodological one. According to the substantive premise the Eurozone crisis has not been merely an economic crisis and a crisis of the European macroeconomic constitution but has had significant consequences in the dimensions of the political and social constitution as well. This substantive premise is linked to our understanding of the European constitution as a multidimensional and multitemporal process of constitutionalisation. The methodological premise concerns the relationship between constitutional and economic analysis. Our objective has not been to complement constitutional with economic analysis ... continue reading

12. April 2014

“The Eurozone Crisis” – A Book Debate

Kaarlo Tuori, Klaus Tuori. The Eurozone Crisis. A Constitutional Analysis. Cambridge University Press, 2014. Pp. 285. £19.99. ISBN: 9781107649453. Taking a break from the ILA Biannual Conference and ASIL Annual Meeting in Washington D.C. to launch this book debate on Kaarlo Tuori’s and Klaus Tuori’s new book I need not stray from the Ronald Reagan Building to find illustrative examples that the Eurozone crisis is far from resolved and will haunt us for years to come. The New York Times reports today on the run of investors on the newly issued Greek debt and notes the disconnect between “the rush ... continue reading

12. April 2014