The Relationship Between National Constitutions and EU Law From the Perspective of the CJEU Judgment in the Melloni Case (C-399/11)
Keywords:
national constitutions, constitutional traditions, Court of Justice of the European Union, legal order, supremacy, priority, protection of rightsAbstract
This paper presents a legal framework represented by the main doctrinal and jurisprudential aspects regarding the role of national constitutions in European Union (EU) law, on the one hand, and the relationship between them and EU law from the perspective of representative judgments of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), on the other hand. We analyzed the concepts of national constitution, national constitutionalism and aspects of the dynamic relationships between the two and EU law. We provided examples from the EU treaties and case law that national constitutions and the EU legal order are complementary to each other and can coexist and develop harmoniously. This is the starting point of the discussion on the role of national constitutions. We also discuss how legal and cultural diversity makes the role of these constitutions increasingly prominent in EU law, as fundamental and indispensable legal instruments within a Union between states. Last but not least, we analyze the considerations provided by the CJEU judgment in the Melloni case (C-399/11), that concern the subject of this paper.
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