Will the European constitution lead to a European super-state?

To link to full-text access for this article, visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.futures.2005.04.014 Byline: Stephan Hobe Abstract: The Treaty establishing the Constitution of Europe is cause to raise the question yet again as to whether Europe is headed for super-statehood, at the expense of the sovereign independence of the member states. In his analysis from the perspective of public law, the author places this latest legal re-characterization into the context of the history of European integration, makes further analogy to the German Constitutional Court decision when German citizens raised a similar question at the signing of the Treaty of Maastricht, and concludes that the Treaty has not provided sufficient change in legal power to create a European super-state. Author Affiliation: Law Centre for European and International Cooperation, European Union Law and European and International Economic Law, University of Cologne, Albertus Magnus Platz, 50923 Cologne, Germany Article Note: (footnote) [star] As translated by Kirk W. Junker, Duquesne University School of Law, 600 Locust Street, PA, Pennsylvania 15282, USA. The author and translator would like especially to thank Andrea End of the Law Centre for European and International Cooperation, Cologne, Germany, for her research and bibliographic completion of this text., 1 This text is based upon an address first delivered in 2003 before the failed vote to adopt the Treaty on European Constitution occurred in Rome in December, 2003, and also of course before its successful adoption in Dublin, 2004.