*** MIGUEL POIARES MADURO, LOÏC AZOULAI (Editors): The Past and Future of EU Law. The Classics of EU Law Revisited on the 50th Anniversary of the Rome Treaty. Hart Publishing (16C Worcester Place, Oxford, OX1 2JW, UK. Tel: (44-1865) 517530 - fax: 510710 - Email: mail@hartpub.co.uk - Internet: http://www.hartpub.co.uk ). 2010, 512 pp. £55. ISBN 978-1-84113-712-4.
This is one of those books that has an undeniably magical side to it, despite the fact that the law should obviously be an austere discipline. Nonetheless, in this book, which contains almost 50 contributions from eminent specialists in European law, the magic is sprinkled in a way that clarifies the future of European integration in light of the major rulings - the “classics” - of the European Court of Justice and its apparatus that recount some of the events in the Community adventure. What would European law be without decisions made by the Court in Luxembourg? What factors may have influenced it? Have all the legal developments likely to result from these judgements and the legal reasoning underpinning them been fully explored and will some of them still contribute to the jurisprudence and European law? These are some of the questions, which the “ great legal interpreters” who have come together to write this book systematically answer by way of examining the decision they tackle, and in so doing, give an additional sprinkling of magic. Every court decision is effectively put into context, analysed and discussed by four legal specialists who have pursued very different legal trajectories: firstly, a former or current member of the European Court of Justice provides an “insider's view”; secondly, an eminent academic, supported by a promising legal expert from the new academic generation provides a “view on the future”, which is followed by a legal expert specialised in other disciplines in addition to European law, who provides a view “from the outside”. Subsequently, they collectively give life to an “ideal interpretation” of the European Court of Justice's most important decisions and which, from a variety of points of view, enable the reader to establish an informed opinion on the basis of a balanced calculation of past events.
The decisions selected are comprehensively divided into three major categories, although some of them have had transversal effects. The first of them are those that have established and which guarantee the authority of the Community legal order. The incorporation of the decisions on the Van Gend en Loos, Costa v Enel, Simmenthal and Internationale Handelsgesellschaft rulings into the legal statutes of member states have become the norm and the acknowledged primacy has gone to European law, as the cherry on the cake, when completing the legal system the editors of this book describe as, “a legal order of a federal nature”. At the same time, these decisions have been fundamental in guaranteeing the autonomy of the European legal order with regard to its relationship with national and international equivalents and also by establishing its direct relationship with citizens who can refer to these decisions in their quest to have their legal rights prevail. The second category looks at decisions that have conferred legitimacy within the European legal order by looking at it in relation to a system of similar values to those in national constitutional orders, such as the protection of fundamental rights (Internationale Handelsgesellschaft, Nold, Wachauf, ERT rulings) on European citizenship (Martinez Sala and Baumbast) and the affirmation of Community of law (the Greens v Parliament), laws deriving from the existence of the internal market (Dassonville, Cassis de Dijon) and through the affirmation of elements of social justice in this context and with the Defrenne decision (even though there are a lot of people who would contest this ruling) and the Bosman decision on football. The third category assesses the decisions of the European Court of Justice and how these have defined the parameters of Community law and the field of application for its rules when resolving potential conflicts between member states (ERTA, Open Skies, Cilfit, Foto-Frost).
All of this verification provides a number of lessons such as, for example, how the European Court of Justice triggers a revolution of change through one of its decisions, prompted by the Commission when it took over the Cassis de Dijon case and subsequently developed a formidable legislative programme. Miguel Poiares Maduro (former Advocate General at the European Court of Justice, who now teaches at the European University Institute) and Professor Loïc Azoulai (University Pantheon-Assas) demonstrate how the European Court of Justice has unceasingly adapted to change over the years. They also points out how this exercise could prove dangerous, given the current media attention and increased criticism, which means that it is operating in “troubled waters” because even within it, “the relative weight of the institutional memory dissipates, as does the tendency for Collegiality too”. This threat alone is justification for this remarkable book!
Michel Theys
*** A NTOINE MASSON: Droit communautaire. Droit institutionnel et droit matériel. Éditions De Boeck / Larcier (39 rue des Minimes, B-1000 Brussels. Tel: (32-10) 482511 - fax: 482693 - Email: commande@deboeckservices.com - Internet: http://www.larcier.com ). “Manuels Larcier”. 2009, 576 pp., €45. ISBN 978-2-8044-3574-5.
Antoine Masson is a researcher at the University of Luxembourg and the Jules Verne de Picardie University. He put together this pedagogical manual so that students and other interested parties could have a basic knowledge of this subject. This publication does not just tackle European law from a theoretical point of view but also introduces practical exercises and rectification, as well as methodology. All of a sudden, it is not just legal specialists who can understand how the Union can work but also, by way of these examples, ordinary mortal is too! This publication is an excellent introductory guide.
(MT)
*** MAREK ZIRK-SADOWSKI, MARIUSZ GOLECKI, BARTOSZ WOJCIECHOWSKI (Editors): Multicentrism as an Emerging Paradigm in Legal Theory. Peter Lang (1 Moosstrasse, Postfach 350, CH-2542 Pieterlen. Tel: (41-32) 3761717 - fax: 3761727 - E-mail: info@peterlang.com - Internet: http://www.peterlang.com ). “ Dia-Logos - Schriften zu Philosophie und Sozialwissenschaften / Studies in Philosophy and Social Sciences” series, No. 11. 2009, 309 pp., €52.10. ISBN 978-90-5201-529-3.
Law is no longer an exclusively national affair. Today, the Westphalian world is also diversifying in the legal arena, particularly in Europe where the law determined by the European Court of Human Rights and European Court of Justice in Luxembourg are creating tangible effects for natural and legal persons in member states of the Union and/or the Council of Europe. This collective publication was edited by three lecturers at the University of Lodz, and contains fifteen contributions from academic experts, many of whom came from the “new Europe” to examine the theoretical and practical implications of changes to this paradigm, which is expected to further sustainable assert itself into a, “multi- centric legal system” and who essentially present this phenomenon in light of what is occurring in the European “laboratory”.
(MT)
*** ENRIQUE GONZÁLEZ SÁNCHEZ: El proceso de integración europea: de Roma a Lisboa. Perspectivas de futuro. Éditions Universidad Francisco de Vitoria (Ctra. Pozuelo Majadahonda, km 1.800, 28223 Pozuelo de Alarcon (Madrid). Tel. (34-91) 7091400 - fax: 3511716 - E-mail: instituto.schuman@ufv.es - Internet: http://www.ofv.es ). “ Cuadernos de Estudios Europeos”, series No. 3. 2009, 71 pp. ISBN 978-84-89552-65-4.
This book retraces the history of European integration from “Rome to Lisbon” and starts from the real origins of the Union when the “founding fathers” set up the Community Coal and Steel. He explains the various developments through the treaties that led to the Constitutional Treaty and, eventually, the Lisbon Treaty. Enrique González Sánchez is an ambassador in charge of relations with Union institutions and looks at future integration process prospects, particularly in light of Turkey, the claimed democratic deficit in the Union and how the latter should provide itself with the appropriate resources for continuing the integration process.
(NDu)
*** ELVIRE FABRI, GAETANE RICARD-NIHOUL (editor): Think Global - Act European. The Contribution of 14 European Think Tanks to the Spanish, Belgian and Hungarian Trio Presidency of the European Union. Notre Europe (19 rue de Milan, F-75009 Paris. Tel: (33-1) 44589797 - fax: 44589799 - e-mail: info@notre-europe.eu - Internet a: http://www.notre-europe.eu ). 2009, 286 pp.
The Notre Europe association took the initiative to bring together 14 reflection groups to produce a range of different advice and recommendations for Presidency of the Council trio of Spain, Belgium and Hungary. All the Themes on the Union's agenda are subject to analysis and proposals.
(MT)
*** DAVID HANLEY: Où en est la droite ? La Grande-Bretagne. Fondation pour l'innovation politique (Fondapol, 11 rue Grenelle, F-75007 Paris. Tel: (33-1) 47536700 - fax: 44183765 -: contact@fondapol.org - Internet: http://www.fondapol.org ). 2010, 29 pp. €3. ISBN 978-2-917613-44-3.
This paper is available in English on the foundation's website. Professor Reynié heads the foundation, and is Emeritus Professor of European studies at the University of Cardiff. His paper is the first in a series that will be focusing on the political right in Europe. Ten countries will be covered in this study, beginning with the United Kingdom, a judicious choice, given the forthcoming elections, which could finally put an end to thirteen years of Labour Party rule. It is taken as read that the paper focuses on the origins and practices of the Conservative Party, whose organisation, networks and operations are succinctly and clearly depicted. The author also devotes a number of paragraphs to other parties on the right of the British political chessboard (UKIP and the BNP) and the Liberal Democrat Party, which is nonetheless, on the far left of the political right. David Cameron's European options are also analysed, which don't actually leave much room for optimism.
(MT)
*** DANIEL MARGOT: L'acteur européen Jean-Pascal Delamuraz. De l'usage d'une Suisse rétive mais pas chétive. Presses Interuniversitaires Européennes / Peter Lang (1 av. Maurice, B-1050 Brussels. Tel: (41-32) 3761717 - fax: 3761727 - e-mail: pie@peterlang.com - Internet: http://www.peterlang.com ). “Mémoires de l'Europe en devenir” series, No. 1. 2009, 144 p., 20 €. ISBN 978-90-5201-587-3.
The author of this amazing book beginning this new promising series was a journalist on a number of newspapers such as the “Tribune de Lausanne” and the “Gazette de Lausanne” before being made second-in-command at the Swiss radio and television broadcasting corporation. His book both eloquently and elegantly demonstrates that the personal adviser for fifteen years to Federal Councillor Jean-Pascal Delamuraz is perhaps one of the best-placed people to describe the political career and relentless European struggle of the latter. The book also demonstrates that the author had all the qualities required for becoming a psychoanalyst. The subtitle of the book attests to this because the author is not simply content with painting a portrait of a, “Swiss actor on the European scene”, particularly during the years in which he served as a minister, but also seeks to explain with both pertinence and humour, the background of his career and the, “prevaricating behaviour” of the Swiss confederation in relation to the process of European integration, for which it was, in a certain way, a precursor and, “whose history and the way its institutions function … proceeded the joys, hopes, difficulties and even the mistakes made in European construction itself”. According to Daniel Margot, the impetuous Jean-Pascal Delamuraz experienced his “Black Sunday” on 6 December 1992 when the Swiss people said “no” to the European Economic Area and, suddenly, for a long time closed the door to Switzerland's EU accession prospects. He unveils the political and psychological manoeuvrings going on in the shadows, which were not improved by the conclusion of bilateral sectoral agreements that left his country marginalised. In his preface François Gross explains that this is the history of, “ a country whose fear threw it into the arms of national-populism”. He adds that the current crisis, “will exacerbate Swiss isolation because it sought it, as well as the bad leadership because if it is badly led, it will later enable the captain who ascertained the embryonic threat, to equip his boat accordingly”.
(PBo)
*** RENÉ SCHWOK: Switzerland - European Union. An Impossible Membership? Presses Interuniversitaires Européennes / Peter Lang ( See address attached). “European Policy” series, No. 46. 2009, 155 p., € 25.90. ISBN 978-90-5201-576-7.1
This is the English translation of a book originally written in French (Presses polytechniques et universitaires romandes) and appropriately compliments the book reviewed above, which tackles the Swiss “case” in the context of broader European construction. René Schwok is a Jean Monnet professor in political science at the European Institute and Department of Political Science at the University of Geneva. In this book, the author provides an excellent insight into this obstinate “white hole” located in the heart of Europe , which goes by the name of the Swiss Confederation but which is, “sometimes more integrated than certain Union member states”. Schwok explores the main events in this turbulent relationship between his country and the Union, as well as the contents of the first and second generation bilateral agreements. The author then provides an explanation to why he believes Switzerland rejected EU accession: a “question of identity” peculiar to this country, the country's neutrality, conception of federalism and direct democracy prevailing there, as well as, ultimately, the economic obstacles and, more particularly, those related to banking. He concludes that there is a paradox insofar as the more Switzerland becomes closer to the Union through the current and future bilateral agreements, the prospect of accession becomes more remote.
(PBo)