Turkuler Isiksel, Assistant Professor of Political Science, Columbia University

Turkuler Isiksel is Assistant Professor at the Department of Political Science at Columbia University. She earned her PhD in political science from Yale University and works primarily in contemporary political theory. Isiksel has served as a Perkins fellow at the Princeton University Program in Law and Public Affairs and as an Emile Noël Fellow at the Jean Monnet Centre for International and Regional Economic Law and Justice at the New York University School of Law. In addition, she has held a Jean Monnet fellowship at the Global Governance Program at the European University Institute in Florence, and a visiting fellowship at the Justitia Amplificata Centre for Advanced Studies at Goethe Universität in Frankfurt.

"This outstanding empirical and normative explication of the functional constitutionalism of the EU, along with its glaring lack of democratic legitimacy, teaches us how to think critically and creatively about constitutionalism beyond the state in a new way: that is, by reflexively readjusting the traditional languages of constitutionalism to the new circumstances while also sharpening their critical edge." - James Tully, Distinguished Professor Emeritus, University of Victoria

"Does it make sense to talk of constitutionalism beyond the state or is it an abuse of the term constitutionalism that risks both overestimating the developments taking place at EU level and underestimating a possible negative impact on constitutionalism within states? This is a crucial question for constitutionalism and the organization of political power in Europe in the 21st century. Turkuler Isiksels book provides an engaging, innovative, and informed answer to this question. An answer that, while critically analyzing the European Union, rethinks constitutional theory." - Miguel Poiares Maduro, Professor of European Law, European University Institute

"Amidst all of the crisis talk in Europe, Isiksel's ambitious and profound book provides a bracing dose of sanity. Isiksel takes the long view on European integration by reminding us of what it has been all along a political program for achieving a single market across Europe, using economic integration to bring peace and prosperity. As Isiksel shows, the EU cannot suddenly become a democratic political community with a more universalistic sense of rights, given its past. Europe's Functional Constitution is a sobering assessment of the reality of the EU and therefore of its realistic promise. The EU may not live up to the dreams that constitutional democrats have for it, but in the midst of the sense of crisis, Isiksel reminds us that the EU has achieved remarkable success, and that it is a long way from failing in its own terms." - Kim Lane Scheppele, Laurance S. Rockefeller Professor of Sociology and International Affairs, Princeton

"This conceptually rich and elegantly written book makes two important contributions at once: in contrast with the wishful thinking of many normative political theorists, Isiksel demonstrates that the EU's basic legal structure remains determined by the goal of effectively governing an economic union. She also develops a sophisticated theory of functional constitutionalism which should be of interest to legal scholars and social scientists more broadly." - Jan-Werner Mueller, Professor of Politics, Princeton University