IS EUROPEANISM A LEGACY OF THE SECOND MIDDLE AGES? A HISTORICAL COMPARATIVE RESEARCH OF THE PAN-EUROPEAN IDENTITY IN THE LIBER AUGUSTALIS (1231) AND PANEUROPA (1923)
IS EUROPEANISM A LEGACY OF THE SECOND MIDDLE AGES? A HISTORICAL COMPARATIVE RESEARCH OF THE PAN-EUROPEAN IDENTITY IN THE LIBER AUGUSTALIS (1231) AND PANEUROPA (1923)

Summary/Abstract: This paper brings into focus two major innovations of European identity: the Liber Augustalis (1231) and Paneuropa (1923). It discusses several concepts of modern Europe and their possible medieval origins in the first written constitution of government in the Western tradition. The purpose of the constitutiones was to reign in these regimes and unite them under a single rule of law that defined the rights, powers, and duties of each of the components, purpose that mirrors the labors of the European Union today. We gaze into the ideological and terminological correspondences between the Liber Augustalis and Paneuropa in order to understand the origins of the best example of Pan-Europeanism: the European Union. Introspection on the machinations of the main European power of the thirteenth century that had one language (i.e. Latin) and wanted to create one law, offers a better understanding of the signs manifested by the Pan-European movement, with English serving as main language, slowly heading towards Europeanism. We contest the hypotheses regarding the primacy of the Paneuropa manifesto as the first popular movement for a united Europe, and we bring arguments that Europeanism is an heirloom of medieval origins, and that these constitutiones were not confined to defining the structures, procedures, rights, powers, and duties of government as later constitutions would be.

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