Professor Gráinne de Búrca
Florence Ellinwood Allen Professor of Law,
New York University School of Law

"The European Union: Messianic or Democratic?"

Monday, November 25, 2013
4:10 - 6:00 pm

Emmanuel College Rm. 119
in Victoria University
75 Queen's Park Crescent
Toronto, ON

The past six years have been a period of economic and political crisis in Europe and the European Union has been forced to confront existential questions.  In particular,  what is the EU for, and is there a sufficient rationale for its continued existence?  While these challenges suggest the need for a revitalized sense of mission, other influential observers argue that the EU’s messianic origins  -  the idea that it exists to serve some noble goal or ideal – lie at the heart of its problems. On this view, the EU is doomed unless it shifts the basis for its political legitimacy from messianism to democracy.   This lecture challenges the argument that the EU should abandon messianism, or mission-legitimacy, and argues that mission legitimacy still plays an important role in justifying the existence of the EU and indicating a better future path.