Abstract
The focus of the chapter is the feasibility of the construction of the economic crisis that struck Europe in the last decade as a sort of new genus of constitutional emergency. Four main points have to be considered: first, the constitutional response to the economic emergency through the entrenchment of new emergency provisions (or by using already existing provisions) and their legitimacy; second, once the emergency concluded, the concrete possibility to restore, partially or completely, the status ante, in particular with respect to rights protection and, third, if this is not the case, how constitutionalism can react to the economic emergency; forth the theoretical possibility to equate economic crisis to the more traditional emergency situations and, if not, to face a sort of new genus of emergency with all its implications. The issue will be confronted at the EU and member states level.
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Notes
- 1.
Where the principle of national fiscal liability means the principle of member state fiscal sovereignty.
- 2.
The establishment of the ESM was preceded by a Treaty amendment through the simplified procedure under Article 48(6) TEU that added to Article 136 TFEU the new para 3.
- 3.
The memoranda of understanding (MoUs) are agreements pertaining to states in receipt of so-called bailout packages with the Commission, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund collectively acting as enforcers and compliance monitors. As states exit financial programmes MoUs will become defunct.
- 4.
The abstract proceeding can only be initiated by the president of the Republic, the prime minister, the ombudsman, the general prosecutor and a certain number of members of parliament (Articles 278 and 281).
- 5.
Case 370/12 Thomas Pringle v Government of Ireland, Ireland and The Attorney General [2012] ECR 2012-00000.
- 6.
Griechenland-Hilfe Urteil, BVerfG, 2 BvR 987/10, 7 September 2011 (Verfassungsbeschwerde); Sondergremium Urteil, BVerfG, 2 BvR 8/11, 28 February 2012 (Organstreitverfahren); BVerfG, 2 BvR 4/11, 19 June 2012 (Organstreitverfahren); BVerfG, 2 BvR 1390/12, 12 September 2012 (Verfassungsbeschwerde e Organstreitverfahren).
- 7.
BVerfG, 2 BvE 2/08, 30 June 2009.
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Bertolini, E. (2020). Financial Crisis as a New Genus of Constitutional Emergency?. In: Albert, R., Roznai, Y. (eds) Constitutionalism Under Extreme Conditions. Ius Gentium: Comparative Perspectives on Law and Justice, vol 82. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-49000-3_13
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