Von der Macht der Sprache im Europäischen Rechtsdiskurs – ein deutscher Beitrag

(Series Information) European Papers - A Journal on Law and Integration, 2023 8(1), 89-92 | European Forum Highlight of 24 May 2023 | (Abstract) Law and jurisprudence are language-bound. If law is to be further developed, new legal figures and normative concepts have to established which leads to some kind of competition for the most adequate outcomes. Competitively, all the actors who establish and enforce law, struggle to establish their respective concepts in the political as well as legal discourse, and they do so by creating new terminology. This is exemplified by the European constitutional debate. The concept of a full constitution, familiar from state law, cannot be transferred by simple analogy to constitutional models beyond the state. In order to be adapted to the supra-national legal sphere, the regulative idea of the constitution requires function-specific adaptations or modifications. The corresponding variant-rich attempts at modification or adaptation are also reflected in the formation of terminology. The concept of multi-level constitutionalism is particularly effective. German European legal scholarship has further contributed the concepts of the "Staatenverbund," the "Verfassungsverbund," and the "Verfassungsgemeinschaft." The difficulties encountered in translating these concepts are indicative of both the necessity and the limitations of a common European legal discourse.