The Emergence of European Society through Public Law


Book Description

Many Europeans struggle to understand where EU-centred Europeanization has led them. The standard response - that their situation is sui generis, one of a kind - no longer holds. Brexit, conflicts over European financial transfers, immigration, or dubious judicial reforms in some Member States demand a more substantial answer. Against that background, The Emergence of European Society Through Public Law: A Hegelian and Anti-Schmittian Approach frames European integration by reconstructing European public law in light of Article 2 of the Treaty on European Union (TEU). According to Article 2, all Europeans today are part of one society. European integration may not have produced a European federal state, but it has helped create a European society. This society is intimately interwoven with European public law, as the Treaty characterizes it with 12 constitutional principles. The book interprets this statement as the manifesto, identity, and constitutional core of a democratic society. Thus, Europeans should understand that European integration has ushered in a European democratic society. Comprehensive and engaging, The Emergence of European Society Through Public Law examines the great debates of European public law and presents them in a new and forward-looking reconstruction. This new narrative of European legal integration will appeal to academics and students of EU law, constitutional and comparative law, sociology, political science, and legal history. The Emergence of European Society Through Public Law is an open access title available under the terms of a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 International licence. It is free to download from OUP and selected open access locations.




What's Left of the Law of Integration?


Book Description

Born from the ashes of the Second World War as one of the most ambitious and successful parts of the plan for the reconstruction of Western Europe, European integration has been immersed in a deep economic and institutional crisis for more than a decade. This difficult situation is also threatening to erode one of its most original and valuable elements: the establishment of a supranational rule of law among the Member States of the European Union that provides a solid framework for their peaceful, ordered, and fair relations. This book, which is based on the general course given at the Academy of European Law in Florence in July 2015, puts the innovative initial choices made by the drafters of the Treaties and by the Court of Justice of the Union in their proper historical perspective, understanding Union law as a tool of civilisation. Its current decline is explained as a consequence of the waning of the initial impetus behind integration, of the growing complexity and challenges of the Union system, and of the ambivalent attitude of the Member States regarding their common creation. These themes are explored focusing on a number of fundamental structural issues: the principle of primacy, the national limits to it and the theory of constitutional pluralism; the state of health of the preliminary rulings procedure; Union citizenship, equality and human dignity; the scope of the Charter of Fundamental Rights and the standard of protection of those rights; and the rigidity and fragmentation of the Union system in connection with the increasing use of international law as a softer alternative to Union law. In all these areas, the book presents a fascinating story of decay and resistance, a story that is unfolding at present, and whose fate is closely linked to the future political shape of Europe.




International Law as Law of the European Union


Book Description

With a view to recent developments in both the EU and the global legal order, International Law as Law of the European Union explores how, and to what extent, international law still forms part of, and plays a role in, the current legal order of the European Union.




EU Enlargement and the Failure of Conditionality


Book Description

Among the criteria for accession to the European Union are democracy and the Rule of Law. In the insightful analysis offered by the author of this book, these concepts - while admirable and even necessary criteria in principle - are almost impossible to measure, and any judgement grounded in them will always be difficult to justify. In his words, 'by including analysis of democracy and the Rule of Law within the field of the EU enlargement law, the Union entered an unstable terrain of vague causal connections and blurred definitions.' Dr Kochenov addresses this problem by proceeding as follows: 1. Outlining EU enlargement law in general, including the principle of conditionality and the role played by the analysis of democracy and the Rule of Law in enlargement preparation; 2. Focusing on the role actually played by the monitoring of democracy and the Rule of Law in ten candidate countries, scrutinizing the way the EU used the legal tools and competences outlined in its enlargement law. The book adopts the EU's own understanding of democracy and the Rule of Law, as derived directly from the substance of the numerous legal and political instruments issued by the Community Institutions and especially the Commission in the course of the pre-accession process. In this way it demonstrates the actual - as opposed to the officially announced - role played by the assessment of democracy and the Rule of Law in the candidate countries in the regulation of enlargement. Many formidable inconsistencies in the application of the conditionality principle are thus laid bare. This leads the author to a series of recommendations on policy and procedure that he demonstrates could be profitably applied to the regulation of current and future accessions, using the Commission's own structure of monitoring pre-accession reforms in the three areas of the legislature, executive, and judiciary in candidate countries. The probity and soundness of these recommendations, firmly grounded as they are in the actual pre-accession monitoring and its consequences for the pre-accession progress of ten Eastern European countries admitted to the EU in 2004 and 2007, will greatly interest policymakers and scholars concerned with the future of European integration.




The Enforcement of EU Law and Values


Book Description

It is clear that the current crisis of the EU is not confined to the Eurozone and the EMU, evidenced in its inability to ensure the compliance of Member States to follow the principles and values underlying the integration project in Europe (including the protection of democracy, the Rule of Law, and human rights). This defiance has affected the Union profoundly, and in a multi-faceted assessment of this phenomenon, The Enforcement of EU Law and Values: Ensuring Member States' Compliance, dissects the essence of this crisis, examining its history and offering coping methods for the years to come. Defiance is not a new concept and this volume explores the richness of EU-level and national-level examples of historical defiance – the French Empty Chair policy–, the Luxembourg compromise, and the FPÖ crisis in Austria - and draws on the experience of the US legal system and that of the integration projects on other continents. Building on this legal-political context, the book focuses on the assessment of the adequacy of the enforcement mechanisms whilst learning from EU integration history. Structured in four parts, the volume studies (1) theoretical issues on defiance in the context of multi-layered legal orders, (2) EU mechanisms of acquis and values' enforcement, (3) comparative perspective on law-enforcement in multi-layered legal systems, and (4) case-studies of defiance in the EU.




Judicial Enforcement and Implementation of European Union Law


Book Description

The potency of the law in fostering the process of gradual European integration is easily discernable and widely acknowledged. It is largely and conspicuously revealed by the litigation before the courts of, both, the European Union and its Member States. The concern faithfully to give the European treaty the authentic meaning and scope as intended by its authors permeates the European courts’ judgments, and the constant theme of the entitlement of those vested with rights conferred by the law of the European Union to effective judicial protection is omnipresent in their decisions. The law of European integration has been uncharted territory. The novelty of various issues which have arisen and on which the courts have had to pronounce springs from the originality of the integration venture and is commensurate with its uniqueness, distinctive nature and specific exigencies. The writings here assembled allow to trace the starting point since the inceptive formative years of the growth of a legal doctrine and an evolving jurisprudential edifice in several areas, to appraise their direction and constancy and to assay adjustments and adaptations.




Law in Transition


Book Description

The states of Central and Eastern Europe have, to different extents and with varying levels of success, engaged in the transition from authoritarian rule. The (re-) construction of democratic, law-based governance has turned out to be a lengthy and - at times - frustrating process. The agenda for post-communist reform contains many entries, yet a transition-blue-print is not available. The papers collected in this volume explore the implications of the transition process in various areas. While not all aspects of post-communist law are covered, several crucial issues receive an in-depth treatment. These are: the development of (supra-) governmental systems, the procuracy, minority rights, contract law, land ownership and industrial property rights. Displaying remarkable scholarly as well as practical legal expertise, the various contributors to this volume illustrate the problems in, and the potential of, these policy areas.




E-Cycling: Linking Trade and Environmental Law in the EC and the U.S.


Book Description

Provides insight into recycling legislation and its relationship with trade law, explaining numerous environmental policy tools, such as producer responsibility. Examines the relationship between international trade and environmental protection. Uses a case study of electronic recycling and a comparative law approach to clarify the evolving law of the European Community and the United States.




Judicial institutionalization of integration processes


Book Description

The focus of this book is the judicial institutionalization of integration processes through the development of dispute settlement mechanisms, more especifically in the Common Market of the South (MERCOSUR), to date, the most important regional bloc in Latin America. The bloc has been in existence since 1991 and has positioned itself as one of the potential regional blocs for trade and investment, while becoming one of the important actors in the international community. However, its achievements have been tainted by the gaps and problems attached to the core foundation of the regional bloc. MERCOSUR has been suffering or experiencing internal disputes and disunity due to its complex and low institutionalization, a situation which can be seen as being paradoxical. Its current Dispute Settlement Mechanism is subject to uncertainty and doubt, since its own framework is also under internal and external criticism. There has been a series of protocols made in order to tackle the problems of the DSM and to further fix the problems that hinder the cooperation as well as the productivity of MERCOSUR's intra-organisation, all guided by intergovernmental decision-making. As such, this book seeks to tackle the concept of regionalism and the possible models which have been used or have influenced the establishment of MERCOSUR, while discussing the different aspects and developments of each intra-organisation. This is done in order to evaluate the nature of the problem, and future developments that could take place. The book also focuses on the prevalence of politicization in MERCOSUR and the pre-eminence of Presidential Diplomacy over the path of regional integration, which influence the DSM of MERCOSUR and possible developments that might occur in the near future.




The EFTA Court


Book Description

The EEA Agreement extends the four freedoms (persons, goods, services and capital) to Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway. It provides for equal conditions of competition and abolishes discrimination on grounds of nationality. The EFTA Court, celebrating its 30th anniversary in 2024, has jurisdiction over parties to the Agreement. This jurisdiction corresponds to that of the Court of Justice of the European Union over EU Member States in matters of EEA law. This collection of essays, written by members of the Court and external experts, reviews the successes and shortcomings of the Court, its interface with EU law, and its future development.