The construction of European society by European lawyers: a methodological critique

Armin von Bogdandy’s recent book is the latest of many attempts, both judicial and scholarly, to conceptualize the European Union as constitutional order founded on the rule of law. This article reviews Bogdandy’s claim that through the processes of European integration European public law has been transformed from a state-centred law of the European powers into a normative structure of a democratic European society. Adopting a methodological critique, the article argues that contrary to his claim to be adopting a ‘Hegelian and anti-Schmittian approach’ Bogdandy’s thesis owes more to Schmitt’s method that he admits and more closely adheres to Kant’s philosophical method than to Hegel.