POSTS BY Federico Fabbrini
29 March 2023

How EU Membership Transformed Ireland’s Socio-Legal Norms: The Case of Abortion

In 1973, Ireland joined what would become the European Union (EU) in the first ever enlargement of the project of European integration. To say that 50 years of EU membership have been transformative for Ireland is an understatement. By all benchmarks considered, Ireland is a radically different country today than it was when it joined the EU. Abortion provides the best example of this. Continue reading >>
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26 May 2020
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National Courts Cannot Override CJEU Judgments

The European Union is a community based on the rule of law. The EU legal order is the backbone that holds the EU together, and the German Federal Constitutional Court’s ruling in Weiss poses a profound threat to that legal order. This threat goes far beyond the potential consequences of the Weiss ruling for European monetary policy. We write this statement to express our shared view that the German Court’s assertion that it can declare that a CJEU judgment “has no binding force in Germany” is untenable and must be forcefully rejected. We also write to challenge those versions of scholarship on constitutional pluralism and constitutional identity that would defend the authority of any national court to make such a ruling and that helped (even if unintentionally) encourage it to do so. Continue reading >>
13 May 2020

Suing the BVerfG

It is the argument of this blog post that the Commission must activate the procedure of Article 258 TFEU and sue (Germany for the grave breach of EU law by) the BVerfG. As I maintain, this action is constitutionally necessary, legally sound, and it may ultimately help achieve an important integration function – neutralizing the minefield that the BVerfG built around the future of Europe. Continue reading >>
03 February 2016

President Tusk’s Proposal for a New Settlement for the UK in the EU: Fueling – not Taming – EU Disintegration

The European Union is at the crossroad. On 17 February […] Continue reading >>
21 March 2015

The Greek Crisis and the Need for Constitutional Reform in the Eurozone

As the handling of the Greek crisis is making clear, Greek citizens are unable to shape their destiny through the electoral process (since their wishes for a clear shift away from austerity have been thwarted). And if they were, this would imply that German citizens would be unable to shape their destiny through the electoral process (since their wishes for only limited financial support to Greece would be disrespected). The Eurozone is based on separate claims of national democracies that cannot be reconciled. And this is why the need for constitutional reforms of the Eurozone is more urgent than ever. Continue reading >>
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