Federal principles

Robert Schütze

Chapter 5 in Research Handbook on European Constitutional Law, 2026, pp 85-100 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: There is no doubt that the European Union is not a Federal State ; but could it be described as a Federation of States in which neither the Union nor the states are considered sovereign ? This chapter explores this question. Section II will look at it comparatively by exploring the (early) constitutional history of the United States as an illustration. Section III will use this comparative perspective to make the case in favour of characterising the European Union as a federal union. Section IV will subsequently analyse the core federal principles of ‘dual sovereignty’ and ‘dual government’ and explore what they mean in the context of the European Union. Section V, finally, analyses the vertical division of powers and its diverse manifestations, as a core element of all federal unions, in the context of the European Union.

Keywords: EU; Federalism; United States; Madison; Cooperative federalism; Executive federalism (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
ISBN: 9781802207866
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