Theorizing Subsidiarity: Towards an Ontology-Sensitive Approach (2017) 15(1) International Journal of Constitutional Law 201-224 (original) (raw)
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The Substance of Subsidiarity: The Interpretation and Meaning of the Principle after Lisbon
The Treaty of Lisbon has firmly strengthened the subsidiarity principle by empowering national parliaments to scrutinize legislative proposals on compliance with the principle. But how do they apply subsidiarity, how do they interpret the principle and what criteria do they derive from it? First experiences indicate that national parliaments do not apply the new subsidiarity mechanism to simply block EU legislation. They further demonstrate the need for developing and applying objective criteria. As such, the principle may grow into a principle with a legal meaning and significance.
Journal of Political Philosophy, 1998
The``principle of subsidiarity'' regulates authority within a political order, directing that powers or tasks should rest with the lower-level sub-units of that order unless allocating them to a higher-level central unit would ensure higher comparative ef®ciency or effectiveness in achieving them. This principle of subsidiarity has recently come to political prominence primarily through its role in quelling fears of centralization in the Maastricht treaty on European Union. But it has also ®gured in discussions of the proper scope for local autonomy for social policies in Germany, the Netherlands and Scandinavia, and in Green party calls for decentralization quite generally. 1 The present survey of alternative interpretations and justi®cations of the principle of subsidiarity suggests that apparent consensus on it has been gained only by obfuscation. 2 Section I sketches the political backdrop of the debate within the European Union where, rather than reducing and removing fundamental political con¯icts, the principle of subsidiarity increases and shapes such tensions. In Sections II and III, I delineate alternative conceptions of the principle of subsidiarity and its possible institutional role. The alternatives have strikingly different institutional implications regarding the objectives of the polity, the domain and role of sub-units, and the allocation of authority to apply the principle of subsidiarity itself. The need for a political theory of subsidiarity thus established, Sections IV through IX present and assess ®ve alternative normative justi®cations of conceptions of subsidiarity, illustrated by reference to the European Union.
2017
The principle of subsidiarity in the European Union confines the policy-making and law-making competences of Union authorities to situations where the designated policy aims cannot be more effectively achieved at lower (i.e. national, regional or local) levels of governance. There are two institutionalised avenues envisaged to safeguard the EU institutions’ compliance with this principle. Besides the jurisdiction of the Court of Justice in ruling on all legal questions arising from the application and interpretation of the Treaties, another important instrument is entrusted to the Member States’ parliaments. This consists of the political scrutiny of the proposed EU laws with regard to compliance with subsidiarity. This paper intends to juxtapose these institutionalised avenues through an analysis of the principle of subsidiarity as it appears throughout the case law of the Court of Justice and within the subsidiarity monitoring procedure performed by the national parliaments. The a...
The princIple of subsidiarity in modern legal systems
Entrepreneurship, economy and law, 2020
The article is devoted to the coverage of the question of the role and the importance of the principle of subsidiarity as one of the principles that helps to regulate the relationships between different levels of authorities, institutions, associations. With the long history, the principle becomes nowadays actual for the development of the public regulation sphere of different legal systems of democratic States and regional international organizations. The principle of subsidiarity is an inseparable part of the legal systems of the European Convention on Human Rights and of the European Union legal order, but as having the "broad" and "narrow" sense, the approaches to the principle may differ. In addition, the article raises the question of the processes that influenced the historical development of the principle of subsidiarity, as it not exclusively the legal principle and can be seen in other spheres, such as religious doctrine of the catholic church, which has ethical principles at its basement. Nevertheless, paying attention to the role of the principle in modern legal systems, the question of the importance of the principle for the actual future of Ukraine is also researched, as the principle can take part in the basic group of principles that should regulate the administrative reforms and the relationships of institutions. The publication searches for the connection of the principle of subsidiarity to the other principles of administrative law and classifications of the principles, that may help identify the position of the principle of subsidiarity within the system of modern administrative law. The article pays attention to the approach not only of the scholars to the principle of subsidiarity, but also of the judge, from the point of the machinery of the principle within the legal system of European Convention on Human Rights, as one of the types of specific sense of the principle. In the end, the article underlines the importance of the notice and respect to the principle of subsidiarity according to the tendencies of modern democratic states and the future of the development of constitutional states, providing respect to their citizens.
1991 The principle of subsidiarity.pdf
The idea of 'subsidiarity' has been gaining influence within the European Community. 'Subsidiarity' is based on a view of society in which responsibilities are conditioned by the closeness of people's relationships. Intervention at higher levels of society has to be seen as subsidiary to the obligations of smaller social units. Applied more narrowly in the context of the Community, subsidiarity has been taken to refer to a functional division of administrative responsibilities, although at times the principle is referred back to its wider usage; it implies an emphasis on decentralisation and diversity.
The Concept of Subsidiarity in a European Context: The End of National Sovereignty?
2008
The concept of subsidiarity is introduced in the context of the European Union by the Maastricht Treaty [1991]. That treaty laid the foundations for the Europe of the future. However, the notion is much older as it is deeply rooted in the Christian-Democratic ideology, notably Roman Catholic religion. It has been applied to the various denominations in The Netherlands, which were institutionalized for years in pillars. The elites at the top of these pillars pursued a politics of accommodation that explains, at least partly, the relative stable political situation. The consequences were important since The Netherlands is a country in which public and private organizations contribute to the realization of the welfare state. Besides, it is also a country in which local government takes an important share in the implementation of public tasks. Ideologically subsidiarity, sovereignty in the private domain and functionally and territorial decentralization found each other. The result was ...
Discussing Subsidiarity in Terms of Justification
2021
This article attempts to study the inter-institutional dimension of the practical implementation of the subsidiarity principle in the EU legislative process. The main research question is whether the subsidiarity principle could be a real communicative tool in the EU’s multi-level regulation policy used to seek consensus between EU institutions and national parliaments on the justification of an appropriate level for EU actions (subsidiarity justification). The short answer is ‘yes’. Through the content analysis of the published documents and with the help of the theory of deliberation, the author argues for a subsidiarity justification procedure occurring at the beginning of each instance of the EU legislative process to provide an inter-institutional setting to move away from confirming (one-way) to deliberative (two-way) reasoning over the issue of potential subsidiarity violation in the EU legislative process.
Philosophy Now, 1993
[FIRST PARAGRAPHS] In issue No. 5 (Spring 1993), there were two rather flippant remarks about the concept of subsidiarity. The Philosophy Glossary defined subsidiarity as ‘nobody agrees on what this word means’ (p.32), and John Crosthwaite described its meaning as a ‘grey area’, and ‘hand[ed] the question over to the real philosophers’ (p.25). I don’t know if I count as a ‘real’ philosopher, since I have some unsound views on the theory of meaning. In particular, I believe that the meaning of a word depends as much on its etymology as on its use. We can often gain important philosophical insights through understanding how words have acquired their present meaning. The abstract noun subsidiarity comes from the adjective subsidiary, which in turn comes from the concrete noun subsidy. The English word subsidy is a direct borrowing of the Latin subsidium, meaning ‘support’ or ‘assistance’ (though it has subsequently been confined to a financial sense); and the adjective subsidiary originally meant ‘providing assistance’ or ‘supportive’; but it gradually changed its meaning, via ‘auxiliary’ or ‘tributary’, to ‘subordinate’.
A CRITICAL LOOK OVER THE USE OF THE PRINCIPLE OF SUBSIDIARITY IN EU
2023
The principle of subsidiarity in the European Union (EU) is a fundamental aspect of its governance structure, aimed at ensuring decisions are taken as closely as possible to the citizens they affect. However, its application has been subject to criticism and debate over the years. The article discusses the positive aspects of the use of this principle and the possible human rights violations that may be encountered if this use is not appropriate.
The Principle of Subsidiarity as a Constitutional Principle in the EU and Canada
2015
A Principle of Subsidiarity regulates the allocation and/or use of authority within a political order where authority is dispersed between a centre and various sub-units. Section 1 sketches the role of such principle of subsidiarity in the EU, and some of its significance in Canada. Section 2 presents some conceptions of subsidiarity that indicate the range of alternatives. Section 3 considers some areas where such conceptions might add value to constitutional and political deliberations in Canada. Section 4 concludes with some reminders of crucial contested issues not fully resolved by appeals to subsidiarity alone, exemplified by the protection of human rights.