In between the writing of this editorial and the publication of this issue of EuConst, the Treaty on Stability, Coordination and Governance in the Economic and Monetary Union, in everyday parlance the ‘Fiscal Compact’, will have been signed by the representatives of the governments of the contracting parties — the member states of the European Union minus the United Kingdom and the Czech Republic. The Fiscal Compact is intended to foster budgetary discipline, to strengthen the coordination of economic policies and to improve the governance of the euro area.

Constitutional limits to the discretion of the legislature in forming the electoral system — Political equality — Equal suffrage — Equal opportunities for political parties — Free expression of popular will — Functionality of the parliament — Concrete normative standards for assessing the constitutionality of an electoral system — Conception of parliamentary democracy emphasising representation of political minorities and protection from ‘tyranny of the majority’

European Court of Human Rights — Separation of powers — Stafford/Kleyn and A/Kart strands of case-law — Problematic aspects of both strands — Limitations and institutional deficiencies of the Court in this area — Constitutionalisation of and shift in the role of the Court

Monarchies in Europe — Monarchs as embodiments of sovereignty — Implications for monarchy of the EU as a limitation of sovereignty — Effects of Union law on the prerogatives of monarchs — Monarchs as heads of state in the Union