*** PASCAL CARDONNEL, ALLAN ROSAS, NILS WAHL (Eds.): Constitutionalising the EU Judicial System. Essays in Honour of Pernilla Lindh. 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 ). 2012, 488 pp, £65. ISBN 978-1-84946-336-2.
When Sweden joined the European Union on 1 January 1995, Pernilla Lindh became the first Swedish judge at the European Court of First Instance after several positions as a judge in Sweden and the leading legal advisor to the Swedish foreign ministry during the talks that led to the setting up of the European Economic Area and Sweden's membership of the European club proper. In 2005, she became a judge at the European Court of Justice and stayed in Luxembourg to give sixteen years of excellent, loyal service. This varied collection of essays, mostly by former colleagues and leading academics, is designed to pay tribute to this unusual personality, as she is described by the president of the Court of Justice, Vassilios Skouris, in his appreciation of her years of service. Shedding bright light on the constitutional nature of the European Union's judicial system, the first section of the book examines the structure of this judicial system before moving on to explore the notions of citizenship, fundamental rights, procedure and a fair trial.
It is the president of the Court of Justice himself who kicks off by providing a very useful explanation of the origins of the Court, the pitfalls that were avoided by making certain changes, and the challenges it soon faced. Commenting on the Lisbon Treaty, Vassilios Skouris observes that recognition of the legally binding nature of the European Union Charter of Fundamental Rights was a very important step because it 'confirmed, deepened and enhanced the democratic legitimacy' of the integration process. The Lisbon Treaty expanded the range of European Court of Justice powers to cover the Area of Freedom, Security and Justice, European Foreign and Security Policy, which is why it is not possible to avoid 'more than 500 requests for a preliminary ruling' arriving at its doors each year in the near future. Particularly because some of the procedural changes introduced by the new treaty will lead to more cases, particularly the decision 'easing the conditions for the admissibility of actions brought by individuals against regulatory acts' issued by the European Union. Along with a raising of the fines that can be levied on Member States failing to comply with a ruling by the European courts in Luxembourg, Vassilios Skouris notes the introduction of 'urgent preliminary rulings' to enable rulings to be made in less than two and a half months. Does this mean that all problems have now been settled? No, partly because the General Court (which used to be called the 'Court of First Instance') risks being submerged with cases, which is why the Court of Justice has issued proposals to appoint twelve more judges and set up a specialist court to deal with trademark disputes. Is this reasonable at a time when austerity is demanded, even at the European Council? It is the price to be paid 'to avoid a potential decline in quality and effectiveness of the system for the administration of justice,' warns Vassilios Skouris.
Each of the essays in this book deserves its own commentary, but that is clearly not possible in the confines of this European Library. May the reader forgive me for picking out another essay totally at chance in order to provide more of a taster, or at least confirm the level of excellence achieved by the essays. Now a professor at Rotterdam University after his time as a European judge and before that a member of the European Commission's Legal Service, Christiaan Timmermans explains in a very enlightening way why the primacy of European law in no way implies a hierarchical superiority of EU law over national law, because 'the enforcement of Union law in and by Member States largely depends on the willingness of national courts to put primacy into full effect, rather than on coercion.' The author gives a raft of examples of cooperation between national and European courts though formal and informal dialogue, translated into the jurisprudence of national supreme courts and the case law of the European Court of Justice. The latter, notes Christiaan Timmermans, has always been careful 'to prevent its judgements from being perceived as encroaching upon fundamental principles of a Member State's constitutional law,' and even the most reluctant of Member States' highest courts have understood that they have nothing to win by declaring war. For example, we have moved past the time when the highest courts of Germany, Spain and Italy refused to make use of the preliminary hearing procedure, arguing that their sole duty was to protect the national constitution. Even the Bundesverfassungsgericht in Karlsruhe and the French Conseil d'Etat have now had to climb down. Why? The author says it is because the EU provides rights to citizens and national courts cannot deprive them of said rights. Hence the cooperation between all the courts which, by reconciling the principle of primacy and respect of constitutions, in fact turns the national judge into a fully-fledged European judge!
Michel Theys
*** ELEONORE VON BARDELEBEN, FRANCIS DONNAT, DAVID SIRITZKY: La Cour de justice de l'Union européenne et le droit du contentieux européen. La Documentation française (Direction de l'information légale et administrative, 29 quai Voltaire, F-75344 Paris cedex 07. Tel: (33-1) 40157010 - Internet: http://www.ladocumentationfrancaise.fr ). "Réflexe Europe - Institutions & Politiques" series. 2012, 325 pp, €16. ISBN 978-2-11-009043-0.
The value of a book is often revealed in the originality of how it begins. This book is clearly a brilliant a example of this. In the very first line, the authors state that the European Court of Justice is due to a fortunate historic contingency, a lucky accident, basically. As proof of this, they explain that in the first drafts of the Schuman Declaration of 9 May 1950 that were to lay the foundations for the first Community, there was no mention of any European court. The declaration simply stated that decisions of the High Authority would be reveiwable at the 'Permanent International Court of Justice,' - which in itself was not actually true, because that court had been closed in 1946 and replaced by the international Court of Justice.
It was not until the eighth version of the declaration that a less ambitious statement was made to the effect that appropriate measures would provide the necessary means of recourse against decisions of the High Authority. Although the Court of Justice was not designed as a key part of Europe as designed by Monnet and Schuman, it soon showed its value as the best interpreter of their supranational desires. This is precisely what this book by three lawyers demonstrates, lawyers who either are (Eléonore von Bardeleben as administrative magistrate), or were (Francis Donnat is now maître des requêtes at the French Conseil d'Etat and associate professor at Strasbourg University, and David Siritzky is administrator at the French Assemblée Nationale) legal clerks at the European Court of Justice or European General Court in Luxembourg. In the introduction, they set the backdrop by explaining that the courts are based in Luxembourg and describing the courts' various stages of development (the courts are constantly changing), before pointing out various aspects of its unusual caselaw, particularly the direct effect and the principle of primacy of EU law, which mark the European Union's courts out very radically from other international courts: 'It is because of law and thanks to the Europe of judges (at European and national level) that the founding fathers' ideal did not simply get turned into yet another economic cooperation organisation. While it was through political will that the idea of Europe was given shape, it was through rules of law that it became anchored in reality,' argue the authors, welcoming the fact that the Court of Justice is both similar to a constitutional court, the 'administrative judge of the European Unions,' an economic court and a regulating body.
The authors start by describing the European Union's jurisdictional system and its three courts, reviewing in a meticulous and explanatory way how they are composed, their internal organisation and responsibilities. They then explain the contribution of the European Court of Justice to the building up of a Europe of law, before talking in an equally detailed and always understandable manner about the law of litigation and how it operates, along finally with the various legal means available for sending a case to the European Court. Both documented and synthetic, this analysis of the construction of a community of law from the prism of court work 'is a full contribution to the consolidation of the rule of law,' comments Jean-Marc Sauvé in this preface, vice-president of the French Conseil d'État (and president of the Article 255 Committee of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, that has to give its opinion on candidates for the job of judge and advocate general). Well-deserved praise from someone with the right competence to give it!
(MT)
*** BRUNESSEN BERTRAND: Le juge de l'Union européenne, juge administratif. Editions Bruylant (Groupe De Boeck, 39 rue des Minimes, B-1000 Brussels. Tel: (32-10) 482511 - Fax: 482693 - email: commande@deboeckservices.com - Internet: http://www.bruylant.be ). 'Droit de l'Union européenne' series. 2012, 1170 pp, €180. ISBN 978-2-8027-3446-8.
Winner of the René Cassin Prize of the Académie des Sciences Morales et Politiques in France, this doctoral thesis for University Panthéon-Assas (Paris II) provides top-of-the-range scientific answers to whether the European Court of Justice, as a 'supreme federal court in the European Union's legal system,' as it is defined by Prof. Claude Blumann in the preface, has an administrative magistrate. In order to answer this question, Brunessen Bertrand looks initially at the work of the European Union judge in administrative matters, because judges must also monitor national civil services/administrations' work of implementing EU law. She then tackles the objectives of EU law, reconciliation of the general interest with individual interests on the one hand, and ensuring the rights of individuals in administrative work on the other, the context being, Prof. Blumann explains, that of an advanced society where the administratee has ever more diverse and complicated rights, particularly the right to good administration. In the second section of the book, naturally written for experts, Brunessen Bertrand studies the powers of the EU judge in the realm of litigation, which leads her to accept the moving away from the connection with national administrations (not exercising any specific control over them) and to differentiate litigation from full case-law and, far more problematically, proceedings for judicial review of legality. In this way she makes a contribution, explains her former director of studies Prof. Blumann, to the development of European Union administrative law by providing 'an undeniable contribution to the theory of European law.'
(MT)
*** STEPHANIE ROHLFING-DIJOUX (Ed.): La transmission de terminologie et de concepts juridiques dans l'espace européen. Allemagne / France / Russie. Peter Lang (1 Moosstrasse, Postfach 350, CH-2542 Pieterlen. Tel: (41-32) 3761717 - Fax: 3761727 - email: info@peterlang.com - Internet: http://www.peterlang.com ). "Cultures juridiques et politiques" series, No. 1. 2013, 149 pp, €41-10. ISBN 978-3-0343-1094-9.
Following on from an inter-disciplinary conference at University Paris Ouest Nanterre La Défense in October 2010, this book arises from the fact that it is not possible to study a legal system without being fluent in the language of that legal system, be it German, French or Russian. At first, the authors examine how teaching of the language of law and legal methodology to law students is done in countries for students who are not native speakers. The question of legal terminology is then addressed and the third part of the book examines translation difficulties for legal documents.
(PBo)
*** MARKUS GLÜCK: Der EU-Wahlkampf 2009 - eine österreichische Perspektive. Peter Lang (see above). 2011, 176 pp, €32-70. ISBN 978-3-631-61678-9.
Markus Glück looks in this hefty tome at the European elections of 4 to 7 June 2009. After a theoretical first section examining electoral behaviour, the author (an Austrian) discusses the Americanisation of elections in Europe and the growing importance of media and the Internet. He then gets right to the heart of the subject by describing the history of the European Parliament, highlighting its various political parties and how European electsion are organised. The three following sections examine European elections in Austria, drawing up a list of Austrian parties and their electoral programme, paying particular attention to Freiheitliche Partei Österreichs (FPÖ, the Austrian liberal party), which made a breakthrough in those elections by focussing on Europe and holding a lengthy campaign. He then analyses the elections and the outcome of their results in Austria, ending by highlighting the rise of populist and far right parties in some EU Member States, an ongoing process…
(SH)
*** Régions & Communes d'Europe. Committee of the Regions (99-101 rue Belliard, B-1040 Brussels. Tel: (32-2) 2822211 - Fax: 2822085 - email: regionsandcities@cor.europa.eu - Internet: http://www.cor.europa.eu ). "Questions contemporaines" series. January/February 2013, No. 81, 20 pp.
This issue of the Committee of the Regions' newsletter has a special issue on 'Investing in Young People, New Skills and Jobs,' in which Commissioner Vassiliou points out that failing to invest in growth stimulus risks creating a 'lost generation.
(MT)