Introduction

Abstract

Abstract The introduction sets out the main issues discussed in the book and provides an outline of the argument. It explains why the national constitutional courts’ review of European law is of such significance and why it raises a democratic problem. In addition, the introduction shows how the tension between democratic legitimacy and the role of constitutional courts in the EU context is an underexplored topic. A significant body of EU constitutional scholarship puts the national constitutional courts’ review of European law in a positive light, the idea being that the national constitutional courts’ EU-related case law can benefit the EU’s legitimacy. The book challenges this scholarship for being too court-centred. The book instead systematically explores the tension between democratic legitimacy and the role of constitutional courts and enquires whether it is not more democratically legitimate to leave decisions on issues of major constitutional importance for the EU to political institutions.