THE CONCEPT OF "IMPERIAL FEDERALISM" IN THE SERVICE OF EUROPEAN INTEGRATION: HISTORY AND CONTEMPORANEITY

Abstract

Researching the history of the establishment and development of the European integration process, as well as the legal nature of the European Union, we have seen that in the scientific literature there is very little information not only on the use of imperial experience in the integration process, but also on the concept of imperial federalism, which used to be rather popular at the end of ХIX and in the early twentieth century in the European empires. If in the English-language literature one can find a lot of literature on the theory and practice of imperial federalism in Great Britain, similar studies concerning the German and Austro-Hungarian empires practically had not been not carried out. Much more often it is possible to find out books about the German or Austrian federalism, but they generally deal with selected current issues or with the functioning of German or Austria federalism overall. In consideration of the importance of Germany in the European Union's development and functioning, it seems clear that the study of the German experience of integration within the framework of the German Empire under the Constitution of 1871 is long overdue. The purpose of the paper is to provide an overview and to close another gap in the literature on the role of the imperial concept of federalism in the development of modern integration process in Europe.