Late Sovereignty in Post-Integration Europe: Continuity and Change in a Constitutive Concept
MICROPOLITIES IN THE MARGINS OF EUROPE - POSTCOLONIAL SOVEREIGNTY GAMES, R. Adler-Nissen and U. Pram-Grad, eds., Routledge, 2012
24 Pages Posted: 1 Nov 2011 Last revised: 27 Feb 2012
Date Written: October 31, 2011
Abstract
This paper examines the state of sovereignty in post-integration Europe. Drawing on linguistic approaches to law and IR, it interrogates Neil Walker’s conception of ‘late sovereignty’, in terms of how it manages the problem of continuity and change in concepts in transition as well as the constitutive and regulative rules of late sovereignty games. The transition from what the paper calls ‘high sovereignty’ to ‘late sovereignty’ entails a broadening of the range of actors who play late sovereignty games to include non-sovereign state entities such as the EU, a redefinition of the ‘particularising’ element of ultimate authority from territory to function, and an evolution of the criteria for what constitutes a ‘good’ sovereignty claim as stipulated by the regulative rules of late sovereignty games. It concludes by assessing the relevance of late sovereignty for the trilateral relationship between the non-continental territories of EU Member States, the Member states themselves and the EU.
Keywords: Sovereignty, post-integration Europe, EU
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