Ziegler, Katja S. --- "International Law and EU Law: Between Asymmetric Constitutionalisation and Fragmentation" [2011] ELECD 579; in Orakhelashvili, Alexander (ed), "Research Handbook on the Theory and History of International Law" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2011)

Book Title: Research Handbook on the Theory and History of International Law

Editor(s): Orakhelashvili, Alexander

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781848443549

Section: Chapter 10

Section Title: International Law and EU Law: Between Asymmetric Constitutionalisation and Fragmentation

Author(s): Ziegler, Katja S.

Number of pages: 60

Extract:

10 International law and EU law: between
asymmetric constitutionalisation and
fragmentation
Katja S. Ziegler


Both international law and EU law1 are undergoing a process of constitutionalisation.
The development of EU law is itself a symptom of the constitutionalisation of interna-
tional law. EU constitutionalism in the dimension between the EU and its Member States
is characterised by supranational rule-making, the Court of Justice's (CJEU) compulsory
jurisdiction and the prominence of individual rights which are enforceable in an interna-
tional court as well as, through direct effect, in national courts. More generally, the EU
legal order is constitutionalised through a complex intertwining of EU and national law
and a hierarchisation of the relationship of the two legal orders through substantive rem-
edies and procedural mechanisms (in particular the reference for a preliminary ruling).
EU constitutionalisation within the EU legal order is reflected in, amongst other aspects,
the gradual expansion of qualified majority voting in the Council and the co-decision
procedure (now ordinary legislative procedure) for EU legislation giving the European
Parliament a veto right, the creation of EU human rights as standards of review, culmi-
nating in their codification in the EU Charter on Fundamental Rights, as well as a general
maturing towards a more `complete' legal order2 with an internal hierarchy of norms.3
International law likewise shows several, albeit less developed, signs of constitutionalisa-
tion, both in an institutional and in a substantive dimension: institutionally, although
still rudimentary, the powers of the Security Council and its ...