1. Anneli Albi Professor of European Law, University of Kent
Hearing at the European Parliament Constitutional Affairs Committee 7 March 2019, Brussels THE THREE MAIN CONSTITUTIONAL CULTURES IN EUROPE: TOWARDS UNIFORMISATION OR RETAINING DIVERSITY?
Anneli Albi
Professor of European Law, University of Kent

2. European Research Council (ERC) funded 5/6-year project ‘The Role and Future of National Constitutions in European and Global Governance’
Albi A. and Bardutzky S. (eds), National Constitutions in European and Global Governance: Democracy, Rights, the Rule of Law. National Reports. Volumes I and II (T.M.C. Asser Press & Springer)
Two volumes with 29 national reports (EU Member States and Switzerland)
Reports written by leading scholars of constitutional law
Forthcoming Open Access in April 2019,
Albi A. National Constitutions in European and Global Governance: Democracy, Rights, the Rule of Law. A Comparative Study (T.M.C. Asser Press & Springer)
Linked comparative monograph, identifying broader trends, changes and challenges
Forthcoming in summer 2019

3. Three main types of constitutional cultures in Europe
Political/historical constitutional cultures
UK, Malta, The Netherlands, Luxembourg, the constitutions of the Nordic countries Denmark, Sweden and Finland; Switzerland
Post-totalitarian/post-authoritarian constitutional cultures
Germany, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Greece, Central and Eastern European EU Member States (including Poland pre-2016, Hungary pre-2010)
Traditional or hybrid legal constitutions
France, Belgium, Ireland (more flexible)
Austria, Cyprus (similar to the above post-totalitarian approach)
(Source: Albi A. and Bardutzky, S. ‘Revisiting the Role and Future of National Constitutions in European and Global Governance: Introduction to the Research Project’, in Albi A. and Bardutzky S. (eds.), National Constitutions in European and Global Governance: Democracy, Rights, the Rule of Law. National Reports. Volumes I and II (T.M.C. Asser Press & Springer, forthcoming 2019))

4. From comparative to autonomous EU law? Prof. Anne Lise Kjaer:
‘[W]hat will happen to the mutually divergent national languages and cultures of law when independency and autonomy of a common European law are presumed by an increasing number of European lawyers; when they … involve themselves in an increasingly self-referential European legal discourse with lawyers from other European countries; and when communicating about law and speaking the law are no longer conducted in divergent national legal languages, but in a Europeanized legal language with no reference to the domestic laws of the Member States.’ (Source: A. Kjaer, ‘Theoretical Aspects of Legal Translation in the EU: The Paradoxical Relationship between Language, Translation and the Autonomy of EU Law’, in S Sarcevic (ed), Language and Culture in EU Law. Multidisciplinary Perspectives (Ashgate 2015) 91), emphases added, see also below Albi, Vienna J Int Const Law 2015, Part 2)

5. Comparative overview of fundamental/constitutional rights and aspects of rule of law under strain in the context of EU law
A. Albi, ‘Erosion of Constitutional Rights in EU Law: A Call for ‘Substantive Co-operative Constitutionalism’’
Part 1. (2015) 9(2) Vienna Journal of International Constitutional Law
Comparative overview of cases from different Member States where fundamental/constitutional rights and rule of law guarantees have come under strain; includes a number of dissenting opinions of national judges
Part 2 (2015) 9(3) Vienna Journal of International Constitutional Law
Transition from national and comparative constitutional law to autonomous EU constitutional law, including changes in law and legal thinking
Epistemological observations about EU and transnational constitutional discourse; the missing themes
Both parts are available open access in SSRN:

6. ‘Substantive co-operative constitutionalism’
The diversity of national constitutional cultures ought to be retained (subject to the ECHR standards for fundamental rights and the rule of law);
Constitutional achievements and the standards of protection of rights and rule of law principles as established by constitutional courts ought to be upheld;
Constitutional courts and national parliaments ought to retain a meaningful role;
See practical suggestions by the project’s constitutional law experts on how to develop a more meaningful role for national constitutions in EU decision-making procedures
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Source: A. Albi, ‘Erosion of Constitutional Rights in EU Law: A Call for ‘Substantive Co-operative Constitutionalism’’ Part 2 (2015) 9(3) Vienna Journal of International Constitutional Law
See also ERC project website