In this Issue

• Published date: 01 September 2018
• Date: 01 September 2018
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/eulj.12294
• Author: Agustín José Menéndez

EDITORIAL

In this Issue

Can the European Union survive? Is European law resilient enough to cope with the many challenges stemming from

the several unresolved crises that the European Union faces?—Crises that have been postponed but not resolved. Are

Europeans turning their backs on the European Union, or is the reverse true, or perhaps both propositions are true at

the same time? Those are the central questions at the heart of the special section that opens this issue. La Torre

pushes forward the fundamental discussion regarding the role that ordoliberal theorists and ordoliberal ideas have

played in forging the contemporary European Union and, in particular, in the coming of age of the fundamental

idées‐forces that underpin the present organisation of power in Europe. Joerges reconsiders the preconditions for

socio‐economic integration through law under conditions of historically entrenched institutional, social and political

diversity. The failure of EMU as a polity‐making vehicle, far from a surprise, should have been expected. The author

finds that such Polanyian insight remains valid and should be taken to heart, not least by the jurists themselves.

Bickerton revisits the recent literature on the voiding of the European political space, led by Peter Mair's Ruling

the Void. This leads to rather challenging conclusions regarding the relationship between Europe's democratic deficit

and national political systems.

Sterck revisits one of the most mentioned but least analysed concepts in European legal scholarship, namely con-

stitutional identity. His comparative approach to the genealogy and roles of the concept in French and German con-

stitutional law throws new and challenging light on the issue. Nasir engages in a careful reconstruction of the far side

of the European Convention of Human Rights by considering the clauses that set limits on the protection of rights.

Painstaking legal‐dogmatic analysis is combined with thorough theoretical analysis, throwing light on an issue that

deserves much more attention than it usually receives. Pascua Mateo reconstructs in detail the emerging sanctioning

administrative law applicable to financial markets, a field whose salience has been propped up by the cycles of fren-

zied growth and spectacular decline of financial activities in the last two decades. The author argues for a balancing

act between the enforcement of standards and the protection of fundamental rights, and considers possible scenarios

of evolution. In a wonderfully crafted review article, Gilbert engages with Moyn's account of a key turning point in

recent constitutional history, namely, the bouleversement of Catholic doctrine regarding human rights, and more

widely, democracy, during the decisive last years of the Second World War.

Agustín José Menéndez

DOI: 10.1111/eulj.12294

246 © 2018 John Wiley & Sons Ltd. Eur Law J. 2018;24:246.wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/eulj