Dimensions of Justice & Justification in EU and Transnational Contexts

Abstract

This special issue sets out to explore the force of justice and justification and their role for the development and understanding of the EU and transitional realm. As the EU is increasingly facing a constitutional crisis, adjacent to the financial crisis, and perhaps most urgently the EU crisis of 2015; the migration and refugee catastrophe in the Mediterranean, at various levels in the EU decentralized and centralized hybrid system, the European journey to an ‘unknown’ destination seems to have momentarily come to an end. Or at least it is in need of a navigation tool for any further expansion and exploration of the Union project. It appears as if the EU has lost its narrative. Similar developments can be observed within, for example, the WTO, which has been in stalemate until recently. It is on this background, that the concepts of justice and justification have recently become important yardsticks within scholarly debates for understanding constitutionalism in the EU and other transnational context. The concepts of justice and justification however remain essentially contested concepts just as the two concepts might not be equated. In spite of this or maybe exactly because of this they however serve as useful starting points for raising some intriguing questions regarding the role of legitimacy in transnational contexts.