An Existential Crisis? Freedom, Tolerance, Solidarity, Peace; Or, Why Europe is Valuable

  • Joxerramon Bengoetxea University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU)
DOI: https://doi.org/10.18543/ced-59-2018pp115-137
Keywords: european integration, cosmopolitanism, existential crisis, pluralism

Abstract

This paper addresses Europe’s existential crisis. It does so by suggesting that, notwithstanding the relevance of the institutional design, the essence of the project of European integration is persons and peoples rather than states. It then discusses two speeches of important personalities speaking about Europe’s existential crisis. Next, it deals with the question of diversity since the motto of the failed constitutional treaty was precisely “united in diversity”. But this requires explaining the centrality of the individual in practical reason, and the importance of normative systems. The centrality of the individual, related to the value of freedom, is then placed in the context of plurality and diversity, directly addressing the theme of backlash forces in Europe through a map of such plurality in Europe; the socalled multiculturalism or ethno-religious pluralism. The paper concludes by suggesting a version of cosmopolitanism, hermeneutic pluralism, as the normative position to address the balance between individual freedom and solidarity or between “persons” and “peoples”.

Received: 15 January 2018
Accepted: 9 May 2018
Published online: 31 October 2018

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Author Biography

Joxerramon Bengoetxea, University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU)
Joxerramon Bengoetxea (Irun, Basque Country, 1963) is a Lecturer accredited as Full Professor at the University of the Basque Country (UPV/ EHU), where he coordinates the ehuGune programme, “rethinking together” (see https://www.ehu.eus/ehugune). Since 2015 he is General Secretary of the Basque Council of the European Movement (http://www.eurobask.org) and vocal of the Comisión Arbitral del País Vasco. Since 2005 he directs the International Master in Sociology of Law (official MA at the UPV/EHU since 2007), where he teaches a course on compared legal cultures and the doctoral subprogram in Sociology of Law within the program on examining globalization. He studied law and philosophy at the UNE and the UPV/ EHU, where he obtained his BA in Law (1986). He obtained his PhD in Law at the University of Edinburgh (1989), supervised by Professor Neil Mac- Cormick, and completed his training at the Universität des Saarlandes and the European University Institute (Florence). He was the Attorney of Judge Edward at the Court of Justice of the European Union (1993-98 y 2002- 2004) and vice-minister of Employment and Social Security of the Basque Government under the minister of Justice, Employment and Social Issues, Sabin Intxaurraga (1998-2001). His research and publications explore issues related to legal reasoning, theory, philosophy and sociology of European law, theory of European integration, political philosophy, European regionalism, transitional justice, legal pluralism, compared law and comparative legal cultures. Since 2012 is also an invited lecturer at the University of Bordeaux, where he teaches a course on Spanish constitutionalism and has been invited lecturer at the universities of Oxford (2001), Stanford (2012), Helsinki (2013) and Kansai (Japan, 2014). He was the scientific director of the International Institute of Legal Sociology (2005-7), in Oñati http://www.iisj.net and in 2010 he gained the Eusko Ikaskuntza-Laboral Kutxa prize in Humanities, Culture, Arts and Social Sciences (http://www.eusko-ikaskuntza.org), where he has been an active member since 1983.
Published
2018-10-31
How to Cite
Bengoetxea, Joxerramon. 2018. “An Existential Crisis? Freedom, Tolerance, Solidarity, Peace; Or, Why Europe Is Valuable”. Deusto Journal of European Studies, no. 59 (October), 115-37. https://doi.org/10.18543/ced-59-2018pp115-137.
Issue
No. 59 (2018): The European Crisis of Politics: Ethnoreligious Pluralism and the Rise of Radical Populism and Far-Right in Europe
Section
Monographic Articles

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