Resumen de The Nature and Scope of the Primary Law-making Powers of the European Union: The Member States as the "Masters of the Treaties"

Katy Sowery

• This article explores the nature and the scope of the powers of Treaty amendment (or Union primary law-making.) It sets out two of the prevailing theories in the literature that seek to describe or to prescribe the scope of these powers: one which accords an exclusive role to the Member States in the process, and another which attributes to the Court of Justice the role as the final arbiter of constitutionality in this context. The article explores the practical dynamics of primary law-making and argues that the perspectives in the literature do not accurately capture the political reality of Union primary law-making. Rather, it is necessary to explore the subtle interactions between different constitutional actors within the Union. Such interactions may create an environment where proactive primary law change by the Member States becomes difficult in practice, even though the Member States� formal authority under art.48 TEU remains largely unchallenged.