Boundaries and Identity: The Legal Geography of the European Union and the United States of America

This essay addresses the types of federalism found in the European Union (EU) and the United States of America from different perspectives. The first perspective is the traditional one, according to which federal designs are the outcome of processes of evolution and adaptation. Both types of federalism have their roots in the process of the formation of their respective systems, and such processes have subsequently shaped their institutional designs. The second perspective is intimately related to the traditional one. It assumes a functional approach, and highlights the constitutional character of the EU's "treaty-based" federalism. Such a perspective has been developed by American scholars, who have been applying their vocabulary and concepts to EU federalism. It reveals an intimate relationship with constitutional identity, which a community incorporates into constitutional provisions. The essay focuses on the role of one of its constitutive features of constitutional identity, i.e., the legal geography of the EU and the United States.