Research Papers

In a world of increasing mobility and a closely knit network of various media and social networks, one might get the impression that the information where one comes from is of decreasing relevance. Rather, we are expressing ourselves and our views of the world instead of just mentioning our nationality. In that sense, we identify ourselves not so much anymore with our home country but with values, virtues and ways of living. I argue that it is precisely this development that could bring back the concept of constitutional patriotism on the agenda. We are faced with different and differing loyalties, as for example towards our region, our nation state or (presumably a rather small number of Europeans) the European Union and the way of living it represents. This way of living could be expressed in the respect for rule of law, its avowal to democracy, minority protection or human rights. At the same time, the way of living is most importantly expressed in the constitution quot; be it the de jure constitution of the nation state or the de facto constitution of the European Union. Based on this understanding, it is worth investigating constitution patriotism as a concept in the world of the 21st century as a means to describe new loyalties beyond loyalty towards the region or the nation state. It will be shown in this article that (i) constitutional patriotism is by no means an exclusively German phenomenon. Furthermore, it will be discussed (ii) the question of constitutional patriotism as a European political identity in the context of legitimisation of a de facto European constitution. Taking these two lines of argument together, it will be shown that (iii) constitutional patriotism can serve as a form of political identity in federal systems and thus should be taken seriously.