Constitutional Lessons from Europe

All legal transplants are problematic, constitutional transplants especially so. And constitutional transplants for federal systems are among the most problematic of all. Still, especially in light of the apparent derailing of the EU's Draft Constitutional Treaty, the question of the relevance of EU constitution-making for constitution-making in federal-style systems elsewhere seems nothing less than compelling. Two problematic themes emerge most forcefully from the EU constitutional adventure just witnessed.

One is the utter importance of a sense of identity, and the other is the profound challenge of satisfactorily organizing the processes of democratic participation.