Imagining European constitutionalism as a constitutional scholar

Abstract

I am grateful to the organisers of this symposium and particularly to the authors for their reflections on our book, European Constitutional Imaginaries: Between Ideology and Utopia. This is a very special occasion to have our ideas discussed by the new generation of scholars, who have started their academic careers 'on the hills of Fiesole?' where much of what we discuss today was born a few decades ago. It is therefore somewhat touching to read their personal reflections on their paths to academia, and what it is to be a European constitutional scholar today. I deeply appreciated Maciej Krogel's observation that our book has the 'ambition' to understand what has happened to the very capacity of imagining and narrating the constitutional tales in Europe. And I was saddened by his admirably honest observation about the very place he came to become a scholar.