If at First You Don't Succeed: Vote, Vote Again: Analyzing the Second Referendum Phenomenon in EU Treaty Change

The aim of this Essay is to probe the causes of the European Union's ("EU") second-referendum practice with a view to better understand what strikes many observers as a procedurally bizarre and democratically dubious exercise. It is not the intention of this Essay to offer any justification for the practice, but rather to explain the factors specific to the EU which have contributed to its recurrence.