The case Bundesverfassungsgericht versus EU Court of Justice

The Case BVerfG v EUCoJ portrays the clash between the German Constitutional Court and the Court of Justice of the European Union as a collision between two competing visions or Weltanschauungen. While the views of the BVerfG are firmly rooted in the traditional approach, known as the Westphalian system of International Relations, the EU Court of Justice takes the emerging European model of Transnational Governance as its point of departure. The stakes could hardly be higher. The debate between the two Courts focuses on the question whether or not the EU can function as a democracy without forming a state.00In addressing this pivotal question the author introduces the theory of democratic integration as a contemporary political philosophy for the EU. The novelty of the new theory is that it substitutes the civic perspective of democracy and the rule of law in the study of the EU for the diplomatic paradigm of states. The theory of democratic integration holds that, if two or more democratic states agree to share sovereignty in a number of fields with a view to attain common goals, their organization should be democratic too.