A Crisis Between Crises: Placing the Portuguese Constitutional Jurisprudence of Crisis In Context

Abstract

The authors criticize the Constitutional Court’s jurisprudence of crisis on the main ground that it articulates the relationship between EU law and internal constitutional law in such a manner as to deny any possible conflict and need for reconciliation. This “autarchic” approach to EU Law suffers from two main flaws. First of all, it can only be achieved by construing EU Law obligations as purely obligations of result, leaving the Member states free to determine how the result is to be achieved. However, a strict separation between objectives and means is methodological inconsistent and, furthermore, it is simply incorrect to state that EU Law only imposes objectives and goals. Second, the Court appears oblivious to the composite, plural, discursive, multi-level nature of the EU legal order. This strategy can only lead to disempower national institutions (notably the Constitutional Court) in shaping of European integration.