Law

The Law Lords in ‘Factortame’ based their acceptance of the supremacy of European Community law on an ‘entirely voluntary’ surrender of sovereignty by Parliament. This book tells the story, from the parliamentary perspective, of how Parliament's sovereignty came to be lost. It charts the evolution of MPs' constitutional understandings by analyzing the parliamentary debates on UK attempts to join the Community, the passage of the 1972 Act, and the approval of subsequent Treaty revisions. The book's pervasive theme is the transformation from a UK constitution based on politics to one based increasingly on law. It assesses the extent to which MPs understood that EC membership entailed a shift in power from legislature to courts. This is a study with profound implications for the legitimacy of Parliament as a law-making body. The book also offers two comparisons. First the understandings of British MPs are contrasted with those of Irish parliamentarians, to establish whether Ireland's more law-based constitutional culture had an effect on politicians' understandings of EC implications. Secondly, the book analyses the history of the Bill of Rights debate culminating in the passage of the Human Rights Act 1998, to investigate whether (and why) themes of parliamentary sovereignty and judicial empowerment were clearer in this context than in the EC context.

The emergence of a European contract law is one of the more significant legal developments in Europe today. The complexities that lie at its heart also make it one of the more fascinating areas of legal study. European Contract Law: Exploring Europeanization examines the origins of the discipline and its subsequent evolution. It brings the discussion up-to-date with full analysis of the debate on the Common Frame of Reference and the future that this ambiguous instrument may have in the contemporary European legal framework. One of the central themes of the book is exploration of the multi-level, open architecture of the EU legal order and the implications of such governance arrangements for the EU’s private law programme. The book demonstrates that the key to understanding European contract law in the 21st century lies in adopting a perspective and mechanisms suitable for a legal order populated by multiple sources of private law. Legal pluralism is offered as a theoretical construct in relation to which the future of European private law might be shaped. Legal pluralism forces consideration of diversity’s normative appeal and readjusts the analytical spotlight beyond the traditional, centralised, legislative, ‘command and control’ means of regulation. In so doing, softer mechanisms are introduced for the governance of contract law; mechanisms that enable coordination between the different sites at which contract law operates. This reorientation in thinking about European contract law, indeed about Europeanization itself, enables the inevitable diversity and pluralism that is a feature of multi-level Europe to be captured within a framework that maximises the opportunities for mutual transformations and learning.

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 does not normally 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. This book explores and challenges this assumption. Drawing from constitutional aspects of EC law, the book 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 book explores the potential of enforcement of environmental law through lawsuits 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.

An analysis of the European Commission's general role in supervising member state compliance with EU law, this book provides a detailed assessment of centralized EU enforcement. It starts out by asking whether it is viable to establish stronger Commission powers of enforcement at this point in time. Against this backdrop, and as a means of exploring the role of the Commission, the chapters examine a number of different aspects pertaining to the enforcement of EU law. Beginning with an appraisal of the Commission's function under the general EU infringement procedure stipulated in Articles 258 and 260 TFEU, the volume argues that the EU lacks independent self-sustained regime authority. Moreover, this is reflected in both substantive EU law and procedural law, including the general EU infringement procedure. Chapter Two makes the case that Article 258 TFEU can usefully be explained in terms of managerialism. Chapter Three analyses Article 260 TFEU concerning repetitive infringements. In particular, it asserts, EU member state sanctions sustain the managerial approach. It then goes on to examine the Commission's unsuccessful attempts to gain sharper enforcement powers through secondary legislation, and identifies the effective points of functional overlap between enforcement powers and certain types of implementing tools. Finally, it discusses the Commission's role under various non-binding, ad hoc arrangements. The concluding chapter places the general EU infringement procedure in the broader context of a comprehensive (negotiated) policy process. It argues that the enforcement stage shares many features with earlier steps in the legislative process, including flexibility and deliberation.

Anti-discrimination law increasingly appears to occupy the centre of a renewed understanding of solidarity in the European Union. Not only is it, owing to its focus on equal treatment as regards positions and opportunities, compatible with the task of providing market access, it also seems to complement usefully the social legislation of the Member States. In the face of the widespread downsizing of the old national Welfare state, anti-discrimination law is indeed destined to be perceived as a common European achievement in the social sphere that is not merely reminiscent of a bygone age of government largesse. The book cautions, however, against premature exultation. The book uses legal analysis in order to expose the intrinsic shortcomings of anti-discrimination law, which fails to provide adequate legal guidance and invites, therefore, supplementation by pedagogical projects of social engineering. The book draws variously on the case law of the European Court of Justice, thereby exposing the bounded indeterminacy of anti-discrimination law. It points out how, because of its normative deficiency, it is systematically vulnerable to degeneration into pure casuistry. Moreover, the book also explains how the normative weakness is tacitly addressed in anti-discrimination policy’s recent move from legislation towards softer modes of modifying attitudes and behavior. The book concludes with observations concerning alternative models of solidarity in the Union.

This collection of chapters reflects on the fifth enlargement of the European Union, projected to take place in 2004. It examines the process of enlargement, its impact on both the candidate States and on the institutions and policies of the European Union. In so doing, it discusses these issues from a variety of perspectives — legal, economic, and political — reflecting the different dimensions of the enlargement project. This enlargement will be unlike any other, not only in terms of its scale, and the unprecedented nature of the lengthy and complex pre-accession process, but also in its wider implications for the future direction of the European Union itself and for the whole of Europe. The contributions thus focus not only on the adjustments having to be made by the candidate States and the EU's institutions, but also on enlargement as an interaction between the candidate States and the European Union, and between the EU and the wider world community. Policies that have developed and matured during this enlargement, such as conditionality, also have effects on regions and States which are outside the current enlargement process, such as the Balkans.

The EU has emerged as a major source of innovation in environmental governance. This is manifested through the frameworks it is putting in place for environmental governance, and through its position on the world stage for international environmental law. An institutional richness has developed which is sometimes daunting in its complexity but which offers much promise for the future. This book seeks to give a taste of this, and of the challenges which face the EU in its sustainable development phase. The book opens with a broad historical overview of the evolution of EU environmental governance. This discussion characterizes the most recent phase as that of sustainable development, in which the political dynamic is one of destabilization and the preferred instrument of decision-making, the reflexive framework directive. There follows a series of case studies, ranging from the general to the particular, that cover both the internal and external aspects of EU policy. These include recent key issues in EU environmental law and governance, such as the water framework directive, the new chemicals regime (REACH), and European responses to the challenge of climate change. These case studies engage with key issues in environmental law and governance, including environmental justice, the relationship between trade and environment, and participation in environmental decision-making.

The second edition of this book provides comprehensive coverage of the administrative system in the EU and the principles of judicial review that apply in this area. The chapters in the first half of the book deal with all the principal variants of the EU administrative regime. Thus, there are chapters dealing with the history and taxonomy of the EU administrative regime, direct administration, shared administration, Comitology, agencies, social partners, and the open method of coordination. The coverage throughout focuses on the legal regime that governs the particular form of administration and broader issues of accountability, drawing on literature from political science as well as law. The focus in the second part of the book shifts to the principles of judicial review. There are detailed chapters covering all principles of judicial review and the discussion of the law throughout is analytical and contextual. The discussion in this part of the book begins with a chapter that considers the principles that have informed the development of EU judicial review. This is followed by a chapter dealing with the judicial system and the way in which reform could impact on the subject matter of the book. There are then chapters dealing with competence, access, transparency, process; law, fact and discretion; rights, equality, legitimate expectations, two chapters on proportionality, the precautionary principle, two chapters on remedies, and the ombudsman. The book paints a comprehensive picture of administrative law as it exists in the EU today.

This book considers the ways in which the EU administers policy, the objective being to explicate, analyse, and evaluate the modes of policy delivery, in order to assess the role of law therein and to draw conclusions about their relative efficacy. The approach throughout is contextual and inter-disciplinary. The focus in Part II shifts to ‘Law and Administration’ with analysis of the principles of judicial review as they have been developed by the Community courts. The chapters consider in-depth the principles of judicial review that are applied to control and structure EU administration and that of the Member States when acting in the sphere of EU law. The discussion takes full account of the legislative and political initiatives that are relevant to particular issues, as well as the contribution made by the Community courts.

EU Anti-Discrimination Law provides a detailed and critical analysis of the corpus of EU law prohibiting discrimination on the grounds of sex, racial or ethnic origin, religion or belief, disability, age, and sexual orientation. It takes into account the changes brought about by the Treaty of Lisbon and it contains thorough examination of the relevant case law of the Court of Justice of the EU. The book examines the background to the legislation and explains the essential characteristics and doctrines of EU law, in so far as they are relevant to the topic of anti-discrimination. It also analyses the increasingly significant general principles of EU law, the Charter of Fundamental Rights, and the relevant law flowing from the European Convention on Human Rights. The key concepts contained in anti-discrimination law are subjected to close scrutiny. The substantive provisions of the law on equal pay and the workplace and non-workplace provisions of the governing directives are similarly examined, as are the numerous exceptions permitted to them. The complex rules governing the rights of pregnant women and those who have recently given birth are dealt with comprehensively in a separate chapter. Equality in social security schemes is also discussed. The book concludes with an assessment of the practical utility of the existing law and the current proposals for its reform.