The Constitution for the European Union and the Treaty of Lisbon
Between February 2002 and July 2003, the Convention on the Future of Europe took place with the intent of developing a draft constitution for the EU. The Draft Constitution was completed and presented to the President of the EU by the President of the Convention on July 18, 2003. The final version of the proposed constitution, called the Treaty Establishing a Constitution for Europe, was signed by the heads of state on October 29, 2004. It was submitted to the member states for ratification. Although it has been ratified by fifteen countries, the Treaty was defeated in France and the Netherlands in June 2005. Following those defeats, the European Council decided to review the constitution and the ratification process in early 2006. In their June 2006 meeting, the European Council extended the period of review and reflection for another two years.
After this period of review, the Treaty of Lisbon was signed on December 13, 2007 and entered into force on December 1, 2009. The Treaty of Lisbon replaces the Constitution.
Resources related to the Treaty of Lisbon and the Constitution
To see more background and reference works available at Diamond Law Library, including older editions, please try these searches on Pegasus:
- The Treaty of Lisbon Fact SheetPresents the background and essential provisions of the Treaty of Lisbon.
- Treaty establishing a Constitution for EuropeThis as published in the Official Journal of the European Union. The citation is O.J. 2004 (C 310) 1 and it is available on the Europa website.
- EU Constitution: the State of PlayArticle available on the Human and Constitutional Rights Resource Page. It provides a discussion of the reasons for establishing a constitution for the EU.
Constitution Building in the European Union by Call Number: JX1982.L3 Sm52 2002Publication Date: 2002This book discusses the status, structure and reasons for the Intergovernmental Conferences (IGC) held by the European Union. There is specific focus on the constitutional IGCs that are being used for the purpose of developing a constitution of the EU. It presents a historical background of IGCs dating from the 1950s and also explores the reasons for the recently increased occurrence of the IGCs.
Europe's Constitutional Challenges in the Light of the Recent Case Law of National Constitutional Courts by Call Number: KJE4445 .E9694 2011ISBN: 9783832967246Publication Date: 2011This collection contains contributions to an international conference held in Madrid in October 2010. It is based on the view that the European Union and its constitutional law cannot be isolated from its Member States and their respective constitutions, which are part of European constitutional law, and that the case law of the national courts, in particular the constitutional and supreme courts of the Member States, needs to be considered as much as the jurisprudence of the European Court of Justice.
The European Constitution and National Constitutions by Call Number: KJE4445 .E9695 2007Publication Date: 2006This book looks at the ratification process of the European Constitution in each member state. The materials are presented first for the countries that have approved the constitution, then the two where ratification failed and lastly the countires in which the ratification process is on hold pending decisions by the EU on the future of the constitution. The analysis addresses the question of how the European Constitution has impacted the national constitution within the countries.
