Thirty Years Of Community Law

"More than 30 years have elapsed since Robert Schuman's declaration of 9 May 1950 and the signature on 18 April 1951 of the Treaty of Paris establishing the European Coal and Steel Community. The time has come for the European Community to take stock. Both as a unique economic and human experiment, and as a reality endowed with powerful legal instruments, this singular phenomenon needs to be examined from the standpoint of history. The establishment of the Community was completed with the conclusion of the Treaties of Rome creating the European Economic Community and the European Atomic Energy Community. Its institutions have undergone several stages of development, including the merger of the executives, the creation of own resources, the extension of Parliament's budgetary powers and the creation of a Court of Auditors. At the same time the Community was putting into effect the fundamental principles of free movement of goods, persons, services and capital, and developing the common policies which are laid down in the Treaties or which proved necessary in order to attain, in the course of the operation of the common market, one of the objectives of the Community. On two occasions it has been enlarged by the accession of further European States, first Denmark, Ireland and the United Kingdom, and subsequently Greece. It has also commenced negotiations with a view to the admission of Spain and Portugal. The progress made by the Community is reflected in a vast range of legislation binding on Member States, firms and individuals, and in the body of case-law built up by the Court of Justice in Luxembourg. The Commission wished to provide a work of reference for lawyers which did not assume any familiarity with questions of Community law. It asked eminent specialists in the subject from the various Member States to make individual contributions to Thirty years of Community law so as to trace the development of the Community, summarize the progress achieved in the various sectors and examine the difficulties which the Community has had to face. Each author was allowed the fullest freedom of expression. Neither the Commission nor readers will necessarily share all the points of views expressed, but they will at least have the benefit of a full and frank discussion"--Unedited summary from book cover.

This book offers the first systematic investigation of soft law within the framework of the EC and its use by the European Commission and Council of Ministers.

Cases and Materials on EU Law is a highly respected EU law text and the only cases and materials book in the field. With his clear, engaging writing style, Stephen Weatherill presents the main constitutional and substantive areas of EU law alongside the themes and principles that have shaped the development of the EU and its policies. The 12th edition provides a wealth of carefully selected case law alongside engaging extracts and materials to help explain the complexities of EU law in a contextualized and thought-provoking manner. Insightful author notes and questions accompany each extract, providing valuable additional detail to challenge understanding and encourage students to engage critically with the material. This title is accompanied by an Online Resource Centre, providing students with extra learning materials including: - an interactive map of Europe - a timeline of the EU - video footage - a guide to further web resources - a table of equivalences - legal updates - guidance for lecturers on using the book when teaching.

It is widely accepted that the future development of environmental law depends not on further legislation, but on more effective enforcement. Within the EC legal system, the conventional view is that the enforcement deficit is due to the fact that the environment is distinct from other fields of Community law. EC environmental law normally does not confer rights on individuals and may therefore not be judicially enforced in the same manner as rules concerning the internal market, competition and gender discrimination. The Enforcement of EC Environmental Law explores and challenges this assumption. Drawing from constitutional aspects of EC law, the author examines to what extent the general case law on procedures and remedies may be transposed to the field of environment, whilst at the same time taking stock of the existing environmental case law and the distinctive features of environmental legislation. In a critical exposition and assessment of 50 years of jurisprudence by the European Court of Justice as well as recent legislative developments, the author explores the potential of enforcement of environmental law through law suits by individuals as well as the European Commission. By demonstrating that the environment is not so different from other fields of law in terms of rights and remedies, the book provides not only new insights to the enforcement of EC environmental law but also to the central characteristics of Community constitutional law.

The essays which appear in this work are based on the papers presented at a two-day conference held in Liverpool in July 2007 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Rome establishing the EEC. The collection reflects critically upon some of the EU's historic characteristics and speculates imaginatively on some of the diverse challenges facing the Union in the future. Contributions from both established and emerging scholars of EU law and policy are united by two main themes: the paradox of the resilient yet unstable basis of the Union's constitutional fundamentals, and the ever-contested balance between the EU's core economic mission and its broader social values and aspirations. For any student, scholar or practitioner interested in the dynamic nature of the constitutional relationship between the Union and its Member States, and in the complex tensions underpinning the EU's substantive policies, these essays will be essential reading.

Since the coming into force of the Lisbon Treaty in 2009, and the contemporaneous publication of the Stockholm Programme, the area of freedom, security and justice has obtained a more secure legal basis within the EU treaty framework and now has a coherent policy programme set out for its development. A key aspect in the area of freedom, security and justice are the EU’s provisions dealing with counter-terrorism. This book examines the rapidly emerging area of EU law and policy on counter-terrorism, addressing these twin disciplines from both a theoretical and practical perspective. The Evolving EU Counter-Terrorism Legal Framework is the first comprehensive exposition of EU anti-terrorism law, bringing together laws and policies on terrorism from across the three distinct EU pillars, as well as exploring the legal framework for EU external relations in counter-terrorism. In focusing on this challenging area of EU legal policy which is presently under construction, the book brings greater clarity and critical analysis to the existing legal framework currently in place. In addition to considering the current legal circumstances, Maria O'Neill goes on to highlight potential difficulties which may occur in the future and suggests possible avenues for development of counter-terrorism provisions.

The reform of the European Constitution continues to dominate news headlines and has provoked a massive debate, unprecedented in the history of EU law. Against this backdrop Monica Claes' book offers a "bottom up" view of how the Constitution might work, taking the viewpoint of the national courts as her starting point, and at the same time returning to fundamental principles in order to interrogate the myths of Community law. Adopting a broad, comparative approach, she analyses the basic doctrines of Community law from both national constitutional perspectives as well as the more usual European perspective. It is only by combining the perspectives of the EU and national constitutions, she argues, that a complete picture can be obtained, and a solid theoretical base (constitutional pluralism) developed. Her comparative analysis encompasses the law in France, Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands, Germany, Ireland, Italy and the United Kingdom and in the course of her inquiry discusses a wide variety of prominent problems. The book is structured around three main themes, coinciding with three periods in the development of the judicial dialogue between the ECJ and the national courts. The first focuses on the ordinary non-constitutional national courts and how they have successfully adapted to the mandates developed by the ECJ in Simmenthal and Francovich. The second examines the constitutional and other review courts and discusses the gradual transformation of the ECJ into a constitutional court, and its relationship to the national constitutional courts. The contrast is marked; these courts are not specifically empowered by the case law of the ECJ and have reacted quite differently to the message from Luxembourg, leaving them apparently on collision course with the ECJ in the areas of judicial Kompetenz Kompetenz and fundamental rights. The third theme reprises the first two and places them in the context of the current debate on the Constitution for Europe and the Convention, taking the perspective of the national courts as the starting point for a wide-ranging examination of EU's constitutional fundamentals. In so doing it argues that the new Constitution must accommodate the national perspective if it is to prove effective.