European Constitutionalism and Its Discontents

Traditionally, the European Community has been set apart from all other international organizations, as well as from states, and Euro- pean Community law has been distinguished from both international law and from domestic law. This was so because of the supposed unique internal structure and processes of the European Community. This "splendid isolation" is no longer viable. Increasingly in the .be- havior - and study - of other transnational organizations, polities or regimes, the European transnational experience has come to provide a model, a yardstick and a set of analytical and critical tools, and per- haps erroneously, a desideratum.

While European Community law is no nirvana, it has contributed to our world-view both as a substantive demonstration of one developmental path and as the instrument of reformation of our perceptions of international law. It is time to rec- ognize that European Community law is not a different species of law, but is a mutation of the same species.