Valstybės suvereniteto kategorija tarpsisteminės sąveikos srityje: konstitucinio tapatumo alternatyva ar jo esminis elementas? ; The Category of State Sovereignty within the Scope of the Interaction of Legal Systems: An Alternative to Constitutional Identity or an Essential Element of It?

The participation of Member States in the European Union is based primarily on their constitutions. European integration, based on constitutional provisions, is also a constitutional challenge. Until the emergence of the category of “constitutional identity”, the concept of “state sovereignty” dominated in the jurisprudence of national constitutional courts as a measure of state participation in the European Union, which aids in ensuring balance between national and EU legal systems and marking the constitutional limits of participation in European integration. Many authors perceive the new category of “constitutional identity” as a more modern alternative to “sovereignty” within the scope of the interaction of national and EU legal systems. This is a one-sided approach, as “state sovereignty” should be treated as the most important element of “constitutional identity”; one of its foundations, and not a substitute or alternative. This appreciation is confirmed by the examples of the constitutional jurisprudence of several Member States of the European Union on issues of the interaction between national and EU legal systems. The contours of the concept of constitutional identity as a group of essential constitutional principles and provisions, including the independence of the state, which have emerged in Lithuanian constitutional jurisprudence will not be able to influence the official constitutional doctrine of the participation of the Lithuanian State in European integration. This makes it meaningful to examine problems with the application of the two aforementioned constitutional categories within the scope of the interaction of two legal systems.