Between Shared and Unique Constitutional Traits – The Portuguese Constitutional Tradition

Abstract

Ten years after the entry into force of the “identity clause”, densified by the Lisbon Treaty (2009), we should reflect on its exact extent (Article 4, § 2 TEU). The principle of the respect of the national identities of Member States conveys that European political integration cannot annihilate national state’ minimum core of political and constitutional self-determination. My point is that, whatever the scholarly stance adopted, ‘national identity’ should be understood as a cluster-concept that assembles a myriad of identities, such as cultural, linguistic and social identities or political, or economic ones. ‘Constitutional identity’ is a legal concept open to many interpretations. The European Court of Justice (ECJ) endeavored to clarify it, without success. In other situations, the ECJ has plainly avoided the subject, preferring other routes of argumentation. Does ‘constitutional identity’ mean the specific constitutional traits of each state, such as having a written or unwritten constitution, being a republic or a monarchy, the system of government, the protection of a State’s official national language, and the extension of the right’s catalog? Or does it have something to do with the cultural context in which a constitution operates? As a given constitutional identity is fluid, it can never be fully acknowledged in the present time. In some sense, it is always partially revealed, and it can evolve. Since ‘constitutional identity’ captures the “core or fundamental elements or values of a particular member state’s constitutional order” or ‘the individuality or essence of an order”, we wonder: Is ‘constitutional identity’ a constitution inside the constitution and, therefore, immune to change?