Do We Need A New Constitutionalism for the European Union? An Institutional insight in the Draft Treaty

It could be argued that some historical events are responsible for the recent development of the theoretical debate about the constitutionalism. The first one is the development of a transnational political order, where rules and institutions are created in a new way that seems to represent a rupture with the schemes followed in the international agreements. The second one is the end of the Cold war and the transition to constitutional democracies that has occurred in the countries that belong to the ex-communist area. The third one is represented by the European integration, which had shown to have a constitutional dimension in the Amsterdam Treaty and, thereafter, in the Maastricht Treaty. These three events – or, even better said, these three processes – justify, on the empirical ground, the relevance of the constitutional question. This question is twofold: how constitutional provisions work in such a new political contexts; how constitutional provisions achieve a legitimate status and an authoritative meaning when – as it happens now a days – the standard ways followed to create a legitimate power are got over and new schemes are coming out.