The spread of radically different constitutionalism talks has characterized much of the academic debate on the future of legal integration in Europe in the last decade. Constitutionalism is now statist or societal, holistic or pluralistic, political or ‘managerial’ – to mention some of the principal distinctions. The deep pluralisation process undergone by European constitutionalism has undermined its appeal as a normative conception. Constitutional semantics, however, still permeates legal and political thinking. Yet this paper argues that constitutional norms is more than ever part of the common European ‘social imaginary’ that is carried in everyday legal images, symbols and practices. Although this new constitutional imaginary has both reflected and promoted openness towards new practices of transnational constitutional dialogue and interaction, ambiguities persist. As a specific illustration of these ambiguities the paper focuses on the controversial notion of “constitutional identity” endorsed by the German Constitutional Court in its Lisbon ruling.
