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O'Connell, Paul --- "The constitutional architecture of injustice" [2019] ELECD 2804; in Ahmed, Tawhida; Fahey, Elaine (eds), "On Brexit" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2019) 55

Book Title: On Brexit

Editor(s): Ahmed, Tawhida; Fahey, Elaine

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

Section: Chapter 4

Section Title: The constitutional architecture of injustice

Author(s): O’Connell, Paul

Number of pages: 9

Abstract/Description:

One of the many issues that the Brexit conjuncture raises is how does the Brexit vote and the broader processes around it intersect with and relate to justice. This chapter argues that the Brexit vote can be viewed as a reaction against forms of structural injustice which the EU systematically produces, and which it has enshrined into its core constitutional architecture. In short, the argument sketched here is that the actually existing EU, notwithstanding the highest ideals that animate many of its supporters, provides a constitutional framework which reproduces and legitimates stark injustices between and within the member states of the EU. That the Brexit vote was, in part, a rejection of this constitutional settlement, and in principle the Brexit rupture opens up space to pursue more expansive projects of justice in the UK and across Europe.