Complexity as the 'Efficient Secret' of the European Constitution: an Alternative (Explanatory) Proposal

Abstract

In order to explain the specificity of the European Constitution this work aims to analyse the latest constitutional trends of the European integration process in light of the idea of constitutional complexity. It is divided into three parts: in the first part I introduce briefly the general debate on the notion and the nature of the European Constitution. In the second part I discuss the most important 'constitutional theories' of EU integration and, finally, in the third part I introduce my understanding of constitutional complexity by conceiving it as one of the possible constitutional theories of EU integration and describe the EU as a complex system that is characterised by some precise features; non-reducibility, unpredictability, non-determinism and non-reversibility. Obviously the perspective I adopt is that of the constitutional lawyer who is aware of some possible alternative readings of European integration but who, at the same time, conceives constitutionalism as a plausible, at least, key concept for understanding the latest trends of the EU integration process.