Sovereignty in Post-Sovereign Society: A Systems Theory of European Constitutionalism

Sovereignty marks the boundary between politics and law. Highlighting the legal context of politics and the political context of law, it thus contributes to the internal dynamics of both political and legal systems. This book comprehends the persistence of sovereignty as a political and juridical concept in the post-sovereign social condition. The tension and paradoxical relationship between the semantics and structures of sovereignty and post-sovereignty are addressed by using the conceptual framework of the autopoietic social systems theory. Using a number of contemporary European examples, developments and paradoxes, the author examines topics of immense interest and importance relating to the concept of sovereignty in a globalising world. The study argues that the modern question of sovereignty permanently oscillating between de iure authority and de facto power cannot be discarded by theories of supranational and transnational globalized law and politics. Criticising quasi-theological conceptualizations of political sovereignty and its juridical form, the study reformulates the concept of sovereignty and its persistence as part of the self-referential communication of the systems of positive law and politics. The book will be of considerable interest to academics and researchers in political, legal and social theory and philosophy.

Contents: Preface; Introduction. Part I Cases and Concepts: Multiple sovereignty in the EU: on the differentiated semantics and structures of European law and politics; Sovereignty, or post-sovereignty? A social systems theoretical perspective. Part II Concepts and Theories: Sovereignty and the constitutional state: on the systemic self-referencing and differentiation in the Kelsen-Schmitt debate; No more sovereignty? On the concepts of legal pluralism, living law and societal constitutionalism; Power in sovereignty and its popular legitimation: on the semantics and contingency of popular sovereignty. Part III Theories and Systems: The evolution of the EU's political and legal autopoiesis: on the self-reference of European polity; Desiring a democratic European polity: the post-sovereign EU governed by sovereign Member States. Postscript: sovereignty of popular memories: a critique of political existentialism; Bibliography; Index.