German Constitutional Court decision of 30 June 2009 on the compatibility of the Lisbon Treaty with the German Constitution – Continuing sovereignty of member states under the EU Treaty – Extended constitutional limits to European integration (‘eternity clause’) under German Constitution, but these are not violated by Lisbon Treaty – Composition of European Parliament does not satisfy fundamental requirement of democracy but does not violate German Constitution since EU is not a state – Critical assessment of conceptual foundations of decision

In between the writing of this editorial and the publication of this issue of EuConst, the Treaty on Stability, Coordination and Governance in the Economic and Monetary Union, in everyday parlance the ‘Fiscal Compact’, will have been signed by the representatives of the governments of the contracting parties — the member states of the European Union minus the United Kingdom and the Czech Republic. The Fiscal Compact is intended to foster budgetary discipline, to strengthen the coordination of economic policies and to improve the governance of the euro area.

The enduring joint decision trap in the absence of European government – Postnational constitutionalism – The dismissal of politics – Accountability of government before parliament at the core of representative democracy – Internalising the benefits and of externalising the disadvantages of staying together in the Union possible as long as political accountability is not ensured in the EU system – Breathing political life into the EU through constitutional practice without formal Treaty amendment – A time-frame for approval of treaty amendments – EP and the election of Commission president

First preliminary reference of the German Federal Constitutional Court – ECB Outright Monetary Transaction Programme (OMT) – Financial crisis – Ultra vires review – Principle of democracy – Judicial dialogue – Separation of powers – National constitutional identity – Mandate of the ECB – Article 123 TFEU – Article 18.1 ESCB-Statute – Economic and monetary policy – Honeywell test partially abandoned – Pringle judgment inverted – No margin of discretion for the ECB – Necessity, and prohibition of functional misuse, under Article 267 TFEU – Comparative reasoning

Federalism as a consequence of local/cultural self-determination – Degree of autonomous human rights protection on a subnational level – Analysis in terms of two dimensions: subnational constitutionalism and contestatory federalism – Contrast between US and European models – Opposition between contestatory federalism and subsidiarity – Rise of international human rights protection diminishes importance of subnational human rights protection

Forms of res judicata – Unwritten principle of EU law – National procedural autonomy v. EC supremacy – Revision of decisions v. state liability – Finality of administrative decisions v. judicial decisions – Higher respect for judicial decisions than for administrative decisions – Res judicata not absolute – ECJ itself under demands of legal certainty – Analogy between res judicata rules and rules of direct and indirect effect.

6 December 1992 – 9 February 2014 – 23 June 2016: three national referendums related to the European integration process, the first two in Switzerland, the third in the United Kingdom, with a hardly expected but unmistakably clear anti-European and anti-establishment outcome. The people have spoken, the matter is settled, governments have to abide. So goes the common understanding. In constitutional terms and in the theory of (direct) democracy, however, things may look different.

Irish legal framework on European referendums – Case-law – Judicial activism – No appropriate legislative reaction – Essential scope or objectives test – Constitutional amendment necessary if test not met – Single Act – Pressure for referendum at each new treaty – Political implications – Positive and negative sides of referendums – Referendum-elites – Government sidelined – Equal access to broadcasting – Issues of equality – Diminished role of political parties

Economic crisis, constitutional crisis – Finnish constitutional requirements and solutions – National parliaments' European constitutional function – Finnish parliament's rights – Development of economic and monetary union – Economic and monetary union and development of it as the ‘Union matter’ in Finland – Stabilisation – European Financial Stability Facility – European Stability Mechanism – Economic governance – National, European, political, constitutional

Read carefully: A Community national leaves his or her home state (the ‘first country’) to work in a host member state (the ‘second country’). While in the second country, he or she exercises the right to family reunification with a spouse, partner or dependent who is not a national of any EU or EEA member state (a ‘third-country’ national). When the Community national returns to the first country together with the family member, what determines the family member's right of residence in the first country? Community law – in which case the Community national would continue to enjoy the right of family reunification as before? Or the national immigration law of the first country, which could potentially dictate more restrictive conditions for family reunification?

Treaty obligations: the EU shall combat social exclusion and discrimination, and promote social justice and protection – EU institutions responses to social challenges outside of the Social Policy Title – Fragmentation of Social Policy: in many ways deeply unsatisfactory, yet useful lessons may be learnt – Social implications of economic integration – Rethinking EU intervention on the protection of individuals owing to a fundamental rights’ narrative.

On 10 November 2005 the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights (‘Court’) decided the long-running headscarf battle between Muslim students and Turkish universities in the Şahin judgment. On appeal, it held that the prohibition against wearing headscarves on university premises did not violate Article 9 of the European Convention on Human Rights (‘Convention’) on freedom of thought, conscience and religion. It thereby confirmed the decision of the Fourth Section of the Court of 29 June 2004.

Post 9/11 debate – John Locke important reference – Modern notion, transformation of sovereignty – From legal to political nature of the exception – From temporary to permanent – From preservation of realm to defense of life – Change of the experience of time – Locke ambivalent, transition to modern understanding – Necessity, trust and resistance – Logic of exceptionality – Locke's remaining relevancew

EU budget – Founding vision of budgetary integration – Budget of citizens and not only of states – Corrections, rebates and national net balances – Convention on the Future of Europe – Comprehensible and transparent budget as a prerequisite for democratic legitimacy – Treaty of Lisbon reforms – Post-Lisbon fragmentation leading to a ‘budgetary galaxy’ – Differentiated budgetary integration likely to endure – Final Report of the Monti High Level Group on Own Resources – Necessity for future reforms to take account of the broader galaxy – Return to a citizen-oriented approach – The Union method

Human rights protection – Proportionality – Deference – Procedural rationality – Process-review – Interplay national courts and Strasbourg court

Features European Arrest Warrant – Article 16(2) German Basic Law, which allows exceptionally for the extradition of German nationals, not read in the light of the European Union integration clause in Article 23(1) Basic Law – Complaint of violation of the democratic principle put in perspective – Preservation of the statehood of Germany – Lack of proportionality in and procedural defects of the implementing Act

Directly elected, but in constitutional terms not the central authority of the Romanian political system – A ‘trailblazer’ role in parliamentary elections – Political neutrality constitutionally required, but hard to realise in practice – Comparison with the French Presidency – Limited powers making the President in theory ‘a colossus with clay feet’ – Ambivalent relationships with Parliament and Government – Gap between the constitutional and the real powers on account of ‘active’ Presidents – A hard-to-qualify political system