At the Laeken European Council of December 2001, government and state leaders of the European Union (EU) Member States decided to draft a `Constitutional Treaty' for the EU. The draft would then be discussed, amended, approved or rejected by an Intergovernmental Conference (IGC) held in 2003. The aim of Fabbrini's article is thus to contribute to the understanding of the constitutional evolution of the EU through a comparison with the constitutional experience of the United States.

Worth noting is the fact that there originally were two American constitutions, that the EU does not yet have a formal constitution; but also that the similarities between the constitutionalization process of the two powers are so similar that they warrant a closer look.

According to Sergio Fabbrini, "`Constitutionalism' means a set of procedures and principles used, in a given society and at a given historical period, to define the nature of the supreme...