The Confederal Comeback: Rediscovering the Confederal Form for a Transnational World

This contribution approaches the EU as a modified confederal system. It subsequently suggests that such modified confederal arrangements form a prima facie attractive model for transnational government more generally. To this end the EU is comparatively contrasted with the US C onfederation, which was established directly after A merican independence, on the one hand and with its subsequent evolution into a federate state on the other—a comparison that demonstrates how the EU has combined a confederal foundation with some crucial federate reinforcements in its constitutional superstructure. Subsequently it is demonstrated how these modifications have addressed several of the classic weaknesses of the confederal form and may further help to open up the potential inherent in the confederal form for complementary transnational government more generally.