Stage: University of Padua - Department of Public, International and Community Law
Political Representation. A Conceptual Exploration of the European Union as Federative Political Community beyond the Federal State.
Photo: Joanna Scheffel
Matteo Bozzon earned his PhD in Philosophy and Law from both the University of Padua and the Humboldt University of Berlin (2018 – co-tutelage). His doctoral dissertation is titled Which political and legal concepts need to be re-thought to give Europe a “constitution”?. Aim of the dissertation was to analyze and problematize the juridical and philosophical categories that have been proposed in attempting to conceive the ‘constitution’ of the European Union beyond the democratic (Nation) State. He was Fellow at the DFG-Research Training Group “Multilevel Constitutionalism: European Experiences and Global Perspectives” (Grakov) from October 2012 until September 2015. He has worked together with the team of the Center for Research on Political and Juridical Lexicon. His research interests include the philosophy of politics and law – with a special focus on the political-philosophical foundations of European Union law – and the conceptual history. During his time as a re:constitution Fellow, he was working on a project about the meaning and the structural transformations of the political representation inside a non-state political entity like the European Union.
Political Representation. A Conceptual Exploration of the European Union as Federative Political Community beyond the Federal State.
The proposed research enquires into the meaning(s) and the function(s) of the political representation within the European Union as “Federative Political Community beyond the Federal State”. The analytical assessment wants to contribute to redefine the democratic principle in a way that overcomes its identification with the representative principle, this latter typically operating as source of legitimation for the exercise of the political power within the Nation-state. The starting point of the enquiry is the modern connotation of representation as “presentification of the absent” and its pivotal role for the modern (democratic) legitimation of power within the Nation-state. The investigation consists of two interrelated moments: an analysis of the legal fundaments of the EU goes hand in hand with a critical discussion of theoretical proposals that have tried to conceive of the democratic principle anew, outside and beyond its configuration within the democratic Nation-state. If the traditional concept of political representation must be loosened from concepts such as people, nation, sovereignty, it needs to be re-engineered in light of the new political and juridical context represented by the EU, structurally characterized by political plurality.
