European Constitutional Language

András Jakab is the Director of the Institute for Legal Studies at the Centre for Social Sciences at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in Budapest where he holds a tenured research chair. He is also a Schumpeter Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law in Heidelberg.

• 1. Introduction; Part I. The Grammar: The Rules of Constitutional Reasoning: 2. Constitutional reasoning in general; 3. A scheme of the specific methods of interpretation; 4. The conceptual system of constitutional law; 5. Dialects or local grammars: the style of constitutional reasoning in different European countries; Part II. Suggested Vocabulary as a Patchwork Historical Collection of Responses to Different Challenges: 6. Sovereignty and European integration; 7. The rule of law, fundamental rights and the terrorist challenge in Europe and elsewhere; 8. The constitution of Europe; 9. Democracy in Europe through parliamentarisation; 10. Constitutional visions of the nation and multi-ethnic societies in Europe; Part III. Redundant Vocabulary: 11. Staatslehre as constitutional theory?; 12. The Stufenbaulehre as a basis for a constitutional theory?; 13. Principles as norms logically distinct from rules?; 14. Public law – private law divide?; Part IV. Concluding Remarks.

'European Constitutional Language is an erudite explication and critique of the concepts on which constitutional theory must be founded, illuminating those concepts as well as important contemporary controversies. It is an example of comparative constitutional legal analysis at its best, sensitive to historical specificity and local variations, while also offering appropriate generalizations about basic concepts.' Mark Tushnet, Harvard Law School, Massachusetts