Description
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC Equal Citizenship and Its Limits in EU Law: We The Burden? 2016 by Paivi Johanna Neuvonen
This book is a critical study of the scope of EU citizenship as an ‘equal status’ of Member State nationals. It re-conceptualises the relationship between the status of citizenship and citizens’ right to equal treatment by asking what indicates the presence of agency in EU law. Drawing on case-law analysis the work argues that the neo-liberal view of active citizenship in EU law fails to explain how citizens should be treated in relation to one another and or what counts as ‘related’ for the purposes of equal treatment in a transnational context. It suggests that a more balanced view of agency can be based on the connection between citizens’ agency and their subjectivity. This analysis provides an philosophical account of transnational equality by showing that a new source of ‘meaningful relationships’ arises from recognizing and treating EU citizens as full subjects of EU law and European integration. The book makes a significant contribution to the field both in two ways. Firstly it demonstrates that the undefined nature of EU citizenship is a question about transnational justice. Secondly it provides a framework within which the normative indeterminacy of EU citizenship can addressed within the constitutional order of the EU.