Common constitutional traditions

Jacques Ziller

Chapter 6 in Research Handbook on European Constitutional Law, 2026, pp 101-117 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: Article 6(3) TEU refers to ‘constitutional traditions common to the Member States’ as ‘general principles of the Union's law’. The first time those seven words were used in EU law was in Internationale Handelsgesellschaft, 17 December 1970. This is mentioned in literature in a repetitive way; the chapter goes into more details in order to understand exactly what the concept means and where it comes from. There is only a limited added value to the concept of common constitutional traditions in primary law references, as a consequence of the lack of conceptual autonomy of common constitutional traditions in EU law. Only the CJEU is in a position to declare what is a general principle of law. The EU legislature or scholarship may assert that a principle is a common constitutional tradition, but this has no effect on the validity and applicability of that principle.

Keywords: General principles of EU law; CJEU jurisprudence; Treaty on the European Union; Charter of Fundamental Rights; Comparative constitutional law (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
ISBN: 9781802207866
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