Europäische Prüfsteine der Herrschaft und des Rechts

The EU’s constitution, based on the Treaty and the European Court’s Jurisprudence, causes potential conflicts with the sovereignties of Member States as interpreted by their constitutional courts. The resultant potential conflicts are analysed with respect to the financial crisis and the relation of the Union’s Charta of fundamental rights and fundamental rights as protected by the German constitution. Of overriding methodological relevance for the interdependence of law and economics in general as well as the Court’s Case Law and the Commission’s administrative practice in particular is the different weight given to welfare maximisation and individual rights. The tradition of ‘Bürgerliche Gesellschaft’ and its characteristics are compared with civil society and constitutional liberty in the Anglo-American tradition.