Multilevel Constitutionalism: European Experiences and Global Perspectives

The Berlin Research Training Group “Multilevel Constitutionalism: European Experiences and Global Perspectives” analyses the prospective role of law and constitutionalism at the global level against the background of European experiences. It provides a framework of research for a group of carefully selected young researchers for debate among each other and with highly qualified academics or practitioners. The integration of historians and politicals scientists complements the legal focus of the research training group; economic aspects and analysis are integrated by the association of a specialist in European business law. The European and international orientation of the group mandated by the research topic are realised through close co-operation with international partner universities and institutions, the German participants’ obligatory research component abroad and the integration of up to one third of researchers with a non-German academic background.

The research training group establishes an academic discourse which combines the experience of senior experts with the academic creativity of doctoral students on themes such as constitutional theory, comparative constitutionalism, history, European and international law, state theory, and governance theories. The underlying and overarching topic are the legal consequences of the increased inter-dependence and interaction of our societies in the era of globalisation, the function of the law as an instrument to preserve peace among humans, nations and states. The construction of the European Union as a community based on the rule of law poses the question whether and to what extent Europe’s conceptual basis of integration through law may be transposed to the global level: Europe may be the model or the counterpoint to the evolution of the international legal order. The central function of states as a central organizing feature persists in the global system of governance, but may be subject to changes in the light of the model of “multilevel constitutionalism” or other new conceptual approaches.