18 Colum. J. Eur. L. 441 (2012)
C.M.A. McCauliff.
The economic impulses for a united Europe play a familiar part in the discussion of the origins ofEuropean integration; however, the importance of the Christian Democratic philosophical framework underlying the actions of several of the politicians who served as impetuses for the formation of the European Union is little examined in scholarly literature. For a time, a democratic approach to Aristotelian philosophy as Jacques Maritain formulated it provided some of the consensus that held the Union together. While this is no longer the case, nothing else has replaced this focused commitment. The Union faces much disunity now and has been subject to many ups and downs since beginning its expansion to include more diverse member states, starting with the northern members on January 1, 1973, the United Kingdom, Ireland, and Denmark. Interest in this philosophical framework is increasing in part because of the incorporation of human rights into the Lisbon Treaty in 2009.
