The Currency of Solidarity
Constitutional Transformation during the Euro Crisis

Analyses the European Union's constitutional transformation during the euro crisis, especially the interaction between politics and the ECJ in its materialization.

Vestert Borger (Author)

9781108836364, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 8 October 2020

400 pages
16 x 23.5 x 3 cm, 0.78 kg

'The Currency of Solidarity … aims to contribute to the academic analysis and debate on EU constitutional change through a set series of cumulative events that took place in Brussels, Luxembourg, and many other EU capitals in response to critical market developments when many feared the end of the European project. At times, the narrative of the book moves out of the law together, and helps the reader understand the historical and political backdrop. For ardent lawyers … this weaving in and out of the law is unnatural. Yet, this style of Borger's writing through which a particular narrative is adopted is a considerable achievement … This is one of the most 'in context' books in EU law that has been published to date. It will be interesting to see if EU legal scholarship continues going down this path.' Dr Graham Butler, European Law Review

In their fight against the debt crisis, the European Union and its member states took measures that have profoundly changed the euro. It now differs fundamentally from when it was introduced by the Treaty of Maastricht. Surprisingly, this change has come about with hardly any formal amendment to the Union's 'basic constitutional charter', the Treaties. How, then, to understand it? This book argues that the constitution of the EU has transformed, which occurs when constitutions change without amendment. The transformation is characterized by a broadening of the currency union's stability conception from price stability to also financial stability. Using solidarity as a lens, the book conceptualises the unity of the member states and analyses how this was preserved during the crisis. Subsequently, it explains how that changed the currency union's set-up and why the European Court of Justice could not turn against the change in Pringle and Gauweiler.

Prologue
Part I. Solidarity between the Member States: 1. The concept of solidarity
2. Solidarity between the member states
Part II. The Original Stability Conception: 3. Committing to stability
4. Law and economic wisdom
Part III. The New Stability Conception: 5. The shift in solidarity
6. Contractual change and central bank action
7. Reconciling the contract with the treaties
8. Conclusion: Preserving the contract in an emergency
Bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: Constitutional & administrative law [LND], Economic systems & structures [KCS], Political economy [KCP], International economics [KCL], Monetary economics [KCBM], EU & European institutions [JPSN2]