The EU has evolved from a union of democratic States into a European democracy. Jaap Hoeksma argues this sheds fresh light on the Kantian quest for perpetual peace. It demonstrates that the Westphalian system of international relations should give way to a model of democratic global governance
Jaap Hoeksma argues that a European Court of Justice ruling in 2022 legally overcame the EU’s longstanding democratic deficit. The EU should now draw on the implications of that ruling, and declare itself an original model of democracy
Jaap started his career in human rights with UNHCR, and published about refugee law.
He is based in Amsterdam.
At the time of the Maastricht Treaty, he published the board game Eurocracy with a view to demonstrating that the Westphalian system is not ‘the eternal foundation of international relations’.
Jaap's book The Democratisation of the European Union (eleven, 2023) reveals that the EU has indeed replaced the Westphalian system with the European model of transnational governance.