This is a book about relations: relations between constitutional law and economy, but also between different dimensions of the constitution and different layers of the economic constitution. These relations transfer and transform the effects of shocks introduced by the economic crisis, and, by the same token, testify to the interconnectedness of the constitutional system. Often enough, relations take the form of open-ended dialogues. We hope to make a modest contribution to these dialogues by pointing to some hitherto neglected connections and repercussions.

The German ordoliberal school has pursued the ambitious project of combining legal and economic scholarship; much more ambitious, we would argue, than the law and economics movement of recent decades. Law and economics have mainly been content with buttressing legal reasoning with policy arguments drawn from an economic assessment of alternative readings of law. In contrast, ordoliberals have sought cooperation between law and economics at a deeper, conceptual level. In this cooperation both partners are supposed to learn from each other. Thus, lawyers are not merely at the receiving end, as is their lot in law and economics.