Armin von Bogdandy and Jurgen Bast (eds). Principles of European Constitutional Law

Abstract

After the entry into force of the Lisbon treaty on 1 December 2010, and right in the middle of the European response to the recent financial and economic crisis, the review of the second edition of Armin von Bogdandy's and Jurgen Bast's Principles of European Constitutional Law appears to be a timely and anything but anachronistic or cynical enterprise. The European effort to combat the financial crisis and set up a joint framework to regulate the banking sector shows the constant need for research on the �founding principles of the polity� and the sources of its legitimacy (at 1). And indeed, the second edition of the book, too, provides a thorough examination of the main themes underlying a more closely connected Europe. After the largely positive reviews of the first edition, 1 there is still some room for critical reflection, evaluation, and praise of the second. The editors have not given up on the idea of marketing the book as a textbook (at 3, 5); they remark that the volume is not intended as an introduction to the topic, but rather a reflection on the theoretical and doctrinal fundamentals within the current research (at 6). The book certainly lives up to this aim, although the editors� characterization of it as a textbook needs to be revisited. The tome numbers 806 pages, and thus it is suitable as selective further reading for students, but not as an introductory book on the topic. The authors have taken previous critique seriously and significantly revised and restructured the book (at 5). Yet, its overall approach to the topic of European constitutional law remains unchanged. The editors, in particular von Bogdandy in his first chapter on �Founding Principles�, present the idea of a European constitutional law from the theoretical perspective of �doctrinal� constructivism, and the �