National identity and EU values: Limits to an extensive interpretation of article 4(2) TEU
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5944/rdp.114.2022.34150Keywords:
National identity, European Union values, rule of law crisis, illiberal democracyAbstract
National identity is a legal category of European Union law which is being controversially interpreted in a sovereigntist vein by some political leaders as well as by certain national Constitutional Courts in recent years. We are witnessing a recent judicial trend in line with the rise of autocratic and populist political movements which defend a model of illiberal democracy in our continent, particularly in Hungary and Poland. It is therefore held an extensive conception of national identity seeking to articulate an absolute and imponderable mechanism of national resistance to the action of European Union law. Under these circumstances, this article aims to critically analyse this national jurisprudence, which raises serious doubts of compatibility with a historical, literal and systematic interpretation of the Treaties, especially with the values of the European Union. To this end, a study of the origins and historical evolution of this provision, a categorisation of the notion of national identity, a national and supranational jurisprudential analysis, and the concept of European identity will be addressed in order to question the deflected jurisprudential construction promoted by some national Constitutional Courts from Eastern Europe.
Summary:
I. INTRODUCTION. II. BRIEF HISTORICAL BACKGROUND AND NOTION OF NATIONAL IDENTITY. 1. Origins and evolution of the national identity clause in European Union law. 2. Notion of national identity: two opposing doctrinal trends. 2.1. Constitutional notion. 2.2. Historical and cultural notion. III. NATIONAL IDENTITY FROM A JUDICIAL PERSPECTIVE: SUPRANATIONAL AND CONSTITUTIONAL CASE LAW. 1. Supranational case law. 2. Constitutional case law. 2.1. A general comparative overview. 2.2. First case study: the Hungarian legal experience. 2.3. Second case study: the Polish legal experience. IV. EUROPEAN UNION FUNDAMENTAL VALUES: AN ABSOLUTE LIMIT TO THE NATIONAL IDENTITY CLAUSE. V. CONCLUSIONS.
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