‘Europe Clauses’ and Constitutional Strategies in the Face of Multi-Level Governance

Abstract

This paper is confined to the question how national constitutional systems secure the jurisdictional integrity of both national and European law within national boundaries while at the same time providing legitimacy for European claims of authority within the national legal system. Constitutional strategies are composed along three strands: enabling strategies, impact strategies and three-layered strategies. This paper focuses on enabling strategies, using a comparative analysis to identify efficacy strategies vs legitimacy strategies. It concludes with criteria for the adoption of the ‘best strategy’, based upon considerations of national tradition and sentiments, legitimacy interdependency and the duty to challenge, and a striving for harmonious co-existence.