Book Chapter Details
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Cahill, Maria
2018 May
Research Handbook on Legal Pluralism and EU Law
Subverting sovereignty’s voluntarism: pluralism and subsidiarity in cahoots
Edward Elgar Publishing
Cheltenham, United Kingdom
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Sovereignty Voluntarism Court of Justice Pluralism Subsidiarity Authority Reasoned dialogue Co-operation
Sovereignty’s lingering commitment to voluntarism and the limitations of the voluntarist approach are exposed by the crisis of authority represented by contradictory claims to ultimate authority on the part of the Court of Justice and national courts. Whilst it is uncontroversial to assert that both pluralism and subsidiarity pose significant challenges to state sovereignty, this chapter argues that pluralism and subsidiarity not only threaten sovereignty because they allow for the re-allocation of authority to institutions other than those of the nation state but also because they call into question sovereignty’s fundamental assumption that authority is dominated by will to the neglect of countervailing considerations. They offer solutions to this crisis of authority which finally tackle the problem of voluntarism, by deflecting focus away from the will and towards the good (higher moral principles), towards reasoned dialogue and towards a spirit of co-operation.
9781786433084
https://doi.org/10.4337/9781786433091
10.4337/9781786433091
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