THE EU AS A MILITANT DEMOCRACY, OR: ARE THERE LIMITS TO CONSTITUTIONAL MUTATIONS WITHIN EU MEMBER STATES?

The article investigates the question whether the European Union is legitimated to intervene in Member States when there are constitutional mutations in the latter that pint in a clearly undemocratic or illiberal direction. It is argued that the EU has the legitimacy for such interventions, but that that at present it lacks appropriate legal and policy instruments for such interventions. In response, the article proposes a new institution --tentatively called Copenhagen Commission-- and a new set of instruments, financial sanctions, to remedy this situation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]