Fall and Rise of the European Union. Disputes over the legal character of the EU
In their introduction to the conference subject, Prof. David Engels, Prof. Gerd Morgenthaler and Prof. Altay Coşkun pointed out that each empire is based inter alia on an elaborate ideology and refers to earlier concepts of a political system. By no means prejudging whether the EU is an empire or whether only certain EU institutions aspire to this role, the conference intervention will deconstruct the two currently heavily exploited founding myths of the EU: democracy and the rule of law, using as examples specific EU legal institutions and EU policies. A dramatic change in the self-image of the EU will be analysed from a legal perspective both as a cause and as a consequence of the above-mentioned developments. Lest this paper be limited to a negative analysis only, an attempt will be made to indicate a positive scenario for further the development of the EU.