EUCE Visiting Scholar Prof. Nikos Skoutaris (Assistant Professor, International and European Law, Maastricht University) delivered a lecture in the series “Whose (De)Fault is it Anyway? – The E.U. Crisis in Historical and Comparative Perspective” on Thursday, March 8th. Entitled “On Sovereign Debt Crisis and Sovereignty: A Consitutional law perspective”, this lecture was the fourth contribution to a highly-successful lecture series which is intended to explore the intimidating dimensions of the European financial crisis from a variety of disciplinary perspectives.

Abstract: Legal theory often differentiates between external and internal sovereignty. The former denotes state’s power to act independently from an external or higher authority while the latter is usually understood as “the ultimate source of authority within a state”. In this talk, I will argue that while signing the Memorandum has been nothing more than a voluntary act made by a sovereign state that failed to effectively meet its economic obligations by reference to the markets, still, the ratification and implementation of the Memorandum impedes the very foundations of popular sovereignty as described in the Greek constitution. In order to achieve this, my analysis will focus on the legislative procedures used to ratify the relevant treaties that undermine the Greek Rechtsstaat and the implications of the signing of the Treaty on Stability, Coordination and Governance in the EMU.

Nikos obtained his LL.B. from the University of Aberdeen, his LL.M. from Maastricht University and his Ph.D. from the European University Institute (Florence). He has worked at Amnesty International, the Council of the EU, the Academy of European Law and Tilburg University. At the moment he is an Assistant Professor in the Department of International and European Law of Maastricht University where he teaches EU External Relations law and comparative constitutional law. He is an academic expert in the fields of EU constitutional law, EU external relations, comparative federalism and conflict resolution theory.

All are welcome and light refreshments will be served.

Date: Thursday, March 8th
Time: 12:30-2:00 pm
Location: Room 2003 Ignat Kaneff Building/Osgoode Hall Law School