Reckoning with Empire does not just mean acknowledging it but opening the space to contend with what (and who) has been lost because of it.

Challenging traditional literature available in European Public Law, this article examines how the afterlives of Empire within the European Union impact contemporary law and legal systems through the experience of the often-neglected European periphery. Using Malta as a case study, it provides an account of the convoluted path of constitutionalisation and constitution-making during its time as a British Crown Colony until it gained independence in 1964. The Constitution of Malta (1964) continues to function, albeit in amended form and bears the distinctive handprints of Malta’s colonial past. The article sheds light on distinctive Maltese constitutional qualities inherited from Empire to demonstrate colonialism's lived and living legacies and argues that this hampers democratic development. Furthermore, it has enabled deference towards the European Union. The paper challenges the notion that the European Union (and its legal order) is post-colonial.

Endeavouring to draw attention to the persistent liminality of ‘Other Europe’, the article opens the door to a Europe that ‘remains to be seen’ and incorporated into the milieu of European constitutionalism and constitutional heritage. The Maltese example asks where these narratives and experiences sit and makes a case for inclusivity of narrative in European Public Law that parts ways with ahistorical and selective mythologies of Europe. Exclusion continues to widen the space between the core and the periphery in the European Union. The result is a replication of the hegemonies of Empire.

The article ends with a call to arms to engage and embed critical approaches to and in EU Law. Lack of contention has only served to maim the frames of reference operated in and impact not just academia but praxis.