A text-linguistic approach to the EU constitutional problem

Text linguistics, the science of structure, content and function of texts, has developed a particular school, which focuses on the organizational effect of texts on societies: textual anthropology. Texts and particularly constitutions can thus be perceived as central factors of human societies, as the mirror and promoter of human ideas and concepts of a well-ordered and fair coexistence. They represent the fundamental law of a state, i.e. its value and norm system as well as its organization and they therefore codify rights and duties of the citizens. Furthermore constitutions can be seen as an essential component of social power discourses and are thus focused on as central subjects of text linguistics. As it is very likely that the European Union on its way to an ever closer and more complex cooperation will soon need a binding constitutional charter, further preferably many-sided and holistic work on the problem area of a European constitution seems to be urgently demanded. Since the creation of the European Communities there was a coexistance of the Treaties of Rome (1957) and the Treaty establishing the European Coal and Steel Community (1952). The dispersive and (especially for the European demos) oftentimes unmanageable plurality of several fundamental texts (treaties) instead of a common constitutional charter still persists with the Treaty of Lisbon. The Constitutional Treaty would have reached advancements for European textuality, especially through the integration of previous texts in a single all-embracing document, but was not perceived as an acceptable constitution due to his dual character as a constitution and a treaty. This deficiency of the treaties in comparison with the traditional national constitutions support the idea that the notion of `constitution` includes more than only formal and material legal aspects. A European constitution has to refer to a certain tradition of texts and its particularities (i.e. particular semantics and text structure) and to fulfil a discursive, extra-legal function e.g. to present the proposed order to the people. The importance of text linguistics expertise thus becomes apparent. To enrich juridico- and politico-scientific methods of creating a constitutional text, we propose in this project a text-linguistic approach to the European constitutional problem. In a first step the Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe (2004) and the subsequent Treaty of Lisbon (2007) shall be investigated with the methods of text semantics with regard to the basic textual parameters: semantics (topic, content), superficial structure and function, as well as their interplay. The particular focus will be on the development of the topic und the marcrostructures. The analysis and critique of the above mentioned texts shall form the basis of a model of European constitutional textuality. The current constitutional discourse (via texts and semantic products treating the European constitutional problem) shall be analysed with the aim to establish a catalogue of desirable or necessary pragmatic functions that a modern European constitution has to fulfil in all respects. The final purpose of this project is to elaborate a commented draft version of a European Constitution (based on the asset of the European primary legislation) that does not limit itself to a simple compilation of the material- and formal-legal order, but primarily aspires to an optimal effect on the recipients (i.e. the European citizens), who shall accept and support the proposed order. The result of our work shall be a concrete text which can serve as an orientation for prospective constitutional projects.

Linguistics and text linguistics in particular have long ago crossed the traditional boundaries of their discipline and consider texts from a pan-anthropological perspective (cf. METZELTIN / THIR 2012). Through its explicitly interdisciplinary focus (cf. VAN DIJK 1980) they deal with social problems and their discursive and textual coverage. Similarly, the project of European integration requires basic texts, in order to function. However, states and supranational communities alike need not only a legal but also an ideological basis, which is able to bring forth understanding, coherence and solidarity among the citizens. Not without reason there is a long standing tradition of constitutional texts, which represent the verbalization of both legal and identitary foundations of a community in Europe. Thematically they treat the tension between civil rights and state action of the organs in particular. Pragmatically, they mostly operate in the constitution of values and symbols that represent the community ideologically. Not only the state bodies and instances, i.e. the immediate legal practitioners, are addressees of a constitutional text, but in particular the citizens of the state, who should identify with the community. In order to accomplish this textual challenge, namely the creation of a legally flawless and general-discursive and effective text, a collaboration of jurists and text linguists seems essential. Objective of our project, therefore, was the illumination of the European constitutional issues from the perspective of text linguistics. Specifically, we have performed analytical work on the existing Union documents (especially of the Treaty of Lisbon 2007, currently in force), by investigating them with regard to their semantic, text structural and pragmatic features. Upstream of this step was a theoretical reappraisal of the basic concepts, constitution and text as well as their common interfaces and an instrumentalization of the concepts for the specific investigation. The essential result of our project work constitutes the establishment of an independent European Constitution proposal. We accomplished this by de- and reconstructing the existing European primary law texts (TEU, TFEU, Charter of Fundamental Rights) with regard to text pragmatics focused on the legally untrained citizens and have thus created something new out of already existing documents. It was not about the construction of an alternative to the European Union or its order (though also union conceptual suggestions have been incorporated), but a textual reorganization of existing linguistic and thought material. Our text clearly sees itself as a contribution to a future constituent process in the EU, but does not claim to be exhaustive or perfect. Rather, we want to emphasize that it may form the basis for a future successful collaboration between jurists and text linguists. Only in a dialogue between disciplines an integrative final text can be developed. Regarding the dissemination, an English-language publication of the results is intended in the form of a monograph.