Abstract

European Union law was once imagined as the province of a small circle of initiates: a highly technical field whose language remained largely inaccessible to the broader public. Today, however, questions concerning the primacy of EU law, national constitutional identity, and the Union’s fundamental values are no longer confined to courts, legal scholars, and EU institutions. They have entered national political debate and become part of the vocabulary employed by political parties, particularly Eurosceptic ones.

This talk explores the mobilisation of constitutional law by Eurosceptic actors against the foundational principles of European integration. It introduces the concept of “Eurosceptic constitutional counter-narratives” to describe the strategic use of constitutional arguments to contest European integration from within its own legal and political framework. Drawing on case studies from the United Kingdom, Italy, Spain, and Poland, the talk examines how these narratives are constructed, adapted to specific national contexts, and deployed by political actors. In doing so, it asks what happens when the language of constitutionalism—traditionally associated with limiting political power and safeguarding legal commitments—is mobilised to challenge the authority, values, and constitutional foundations of the European Union.

About the speaker

Giuseppe Martinico is a Full Professor of Comparative Public Law at the Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies, Pisa. His research interests cover both comparative and European law, fields in which he has written extensively, including four monographs in English (published by Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press, Edward Elgar, and Routledge) and articles in international peer-reviewed journals in three languages (English, Italian and Spanish).