The Transformation of Europe

Professor Weiler confronts the most complex and multi-faceted, and indeed the deepest change in contemporary Europe-the evolving relationship between the European Community and its Member States. Without denying the importance of 1992, he argues that it was preceded by two deeper mutations in the structure of the European Community, mutations we must understand if we are to grasp fully the significance of 1992. Tracing the evolution of the Community's political structure from 1958 to the present, the Article concentrates on constitutional aspects of the Community, specifically relationships between the Community and Member States along the axes of political power and legal norms. Professor Weiler then confronts the evolving question of the division of competences between Community and Member State. Analyzing law's role in the Community in its living political matrix rather than as abstract ideal, Weiler follows the evolution of these center-periphery tensions and concludes with some observations on ideology, ethos and political culture in post-1992 Europe.