II Constitutional Jurisprudence, 7 National Constitutional Adjudication in the European Space

This chapter traces the development of the Constitutional Court’s relationship to the European transnational space, specifically the European Union and the European Convention on Human Rights. It is a fascinating study in how the interactions between the three different but interrelated legal orders have generated what could be called a multilevel constitutional system—one that does not work on a hierarchically ordered scale, but that instead opens up the possibility of shaping a sort of European common law of constitutionalism. The importance of this topic is very apparent, not only for the rest of Europe, but even more for other constitutional courts needing to address their national legal systems’ relationships with supranational legal norms and institutions.