Beyond Article 50 TEU : The Constitutionalisation of EU Withdrawal

As recently evidenced by Brexit, EU withdrawal bears a bigger resemblance to peaceful secession by constitutional means than to ordinary treaty exit. However, the EU’s famous withdrawal clause, Article 50 TEU, has been understood by most of the scholarship as a classic mechanism of international treaty denouncement. The main aim of this paper is to refute this narrow view for failing to reflect the reality of EU withdrawal as a democratically and constitutionally significant decision for all parties involved that requires a legal and procedural framework similar to that provided for peaceful secessions. Said framework can be found in the EU’s Article 2 TEU fundamental values, namely, the principles of democracy and the rule of law. By operationalising this provision in the context of withdrawal we provide the EU with the legal opportunity to refuse a withdrawal notification that does not stand up to the high constitutional guarantees required by such a momentous event.