Sovereignty, Post-Sovereignty and Pre-Sovereignty: Three Models of The State, Democracy and Rights Within the EU

Abstract

The EU is seen by many as a test case for whether, and if so in what ways, state and popular sovereignty are being transformed. Proponents of the sovereignty view, interpret the EU as either an intergovernmental organisation that allows its constituent states to maintain their prerogatives in new circumstances, 7 or a federal state in the making that shall ultimately take on the powers hitherto held by its members, 8 By contrast, others see the EU as potentially a new kind of post-sovereign entity, that might regulate solely on the basis of rights, 9 although left and right disagree over how far these rights are positive as well as negative. However, I shall argue that it also has many of the characteristics of the ‘pre-’ or ‘mixed’ sovereignty conception of a polity and that republican constitutional arrangements offer the most normatively attractive way to ensure its complex structures meet the twin demands stemming from democratic politics and legal rights.