ABSTRACT
Constitution and constitutionalism are contested concepts even within their natural cradle of the Westphalian nation state. The court-led development of European integration was part of a global phenomenon towards the judicialisation of politics that characterised late twentieth- and early twenty-first-century 'new constitutionalism'. The notion of EU constitutionalism is as difficult to grasp as the nature of the European Union itself. The Constitutional Treaty's derailment in 2005 forced a re-evaluation of the aims of the integration project, the nature of EU constitutionalism, and the proper relationship between the EU and its member states. Whereas the Constitutional Treaty (CT) had expressed federalist aspirations, the Liston treaty charted a path for a Europe of nation state democracies, governed by a constitutional framework that recognised the equality and autonomy of member state and supranational legal orders. Unlike the quiet revolution, the CT project was overtly focused on winning the hearts and minds of Europe's citizens for the cause of ever closer union.
