Jo Eric Khushal Murkens

From empire to union : conceptions of German constitutional law since 1871

Introduction PART I: CONSTITUTIONAL LAW AS A DISCIPLINE 1. The Emergence of Constitutional Law as a Positive Discipline 2. The Rejection of Constitutional Law as a Positive Discipline PART II: CONSTITUTIONAL LAW AS A METHOD 3. Staatsrecht and Verfassungsrecht 4. External Application to the European Union PART III: CONSTITUTIONAL LAW AS POLITICAL JURISPRUDENCE 5. Sovereignty and Continuity 6. The Interpretation of the Basic Law by the Federal Constitutional Court 7. The Structure of the Federal Constitutional Courts Decisions in Maastricht and Lisbon Conclusion Appendix: Excerpts from the Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany

Mixed Messages in Bottles: the European Union, Devolution, and the Future of the Constitution

An unprecedented eleven-member UK Supreme Court decided R (Miller) v Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union on 24 January 2017. The Government’s argument, that it could start the process of withdrawing from the EU using a prerogative power instead of an Act of Parliament, was comprehensively defeated by an 8:3 majority. However, the Government also secured a unanimous verdict that it did not need the consent from the devolved legislatures in Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland before invoking Article 50 of the TEU. I explore the judicial argumentation in light of Philip Bobbitt’s six modalities of constitutional argument, five of which feature, and one of which ought to have featured, in this seminal case.