The results of the 2005 referenda in France and the Netherlands have stalled progress towards the European constitution. The EU is thus in a state of limbo, drawn between standstill and the need for reforms, and poses a challenge to social, legal and political science. In this book, authors from North America, Europe and Israel analyse the state of the European integration at the crossroads, with a view to evaluating the extent of the crisis, its causes and consequences, and providing possible ways out of the impasse.

The authors reflect on the nature of the process of European unification and supranational constitutionalization and on the consequences of the rejection for the Union's capacity to act, given its responsibilities, its institutional structure and the legal position of its stakeholders. In addition, central sectors of the Union's activity are singled out, including the Single Market, social policy, foreign policy and justice and home affairs, to illustrate some of the potential consequences of a failure of the Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe. Thus, there emerges a picture of what is required regardless of the question whether this Constitution enters into force: directions for advanced integration which take their cue from the nature of the Union in its hybrid state between international organisation and federal state.