Constitutive Powers and Justification: The Duty to Give Reasons in EU Monetary Policy

The transformation of the ECB powers in the last decade opened fundamental questions pertaining to the judicial review of monetary policy decisions and, more deeply, to the role of law in the government of money. This chapter characterizes the powers of the ECB as constitutive and traced in this constitutive nature the roots for the difficulties of judicial review over monetary policy decisions. It argues that constitutive powers justify a shift in understanding the role of law in relation to the action of executive bodies. Law can and must operate in the absence (or irrespective) of judicial review, and support accountability outside of the courtroom. This last point is demonstrated through the analysis of the legal and constitutional scope of the duty to give reasons in EU law