*** GERT STRAETMANS, MICHEL ROZIE (Editors): Doorwerking van het Europese recht in de nationale rechterlijke praktijk. Intersentia (31 Groenstraat, B-2640 Mortsel. Tel: (32-3) 6801550 - fax: 6587121 - Email: mail@intersentia.be - Internet: http://www.intersentia.com ). 2012, 194 pp. €58. ISBN 978-94-0000-346-0.
Since February 2012, the Faculty of Law at the University of Antwerp has been working closely with the Court of Appeal in this Belgian city. The goal of this collaboration is to break down the barriers between theory and practice, particularly by encouraging the academic community and judicial power to work together to exchange their knowledge on a mutual basis. This “Juridische samenwerking aan de Schelde” (Schelde Legal Cooperation) resulted in a colloquy being organised in June 2012 at which Dutch magistrates from 's-Hertogenbosch also participated. This support from abroad was not coincidental because the Netherlands has been studying the circumstances associated with the quality of justice for a long time. This book is the end result of this interaction.
The book is divided into three. The first chapter focuses on the quality and psycho-judicial role involved in the process of providing “justice”. The quality of case law at the European Court of Justice is mainly tackled in an excellent contribution by H. De Waele, visiting professor in European institutional law at the University of Antwerp, who also works at the University of Radboud de Nijmegen. Professor de Waele uses a number of case studies to demonstrate the undeniable shortcomings in the quality of case law at the European Court in Luxembourg.
There are also two sections that provide an analysis of the quality of the decisions made by this legal institution in the application of Union law at a private procedural level and in criminal legal matters. The effects of Community law in the private legal field are examined in two general contributions on the quality of decisions (imperfections, causes and solutions) at the European Court of Justice and on the application of international private European law by national judges, particularly with regard to the official application of Union law in the fields of consumer affairs, competition and tax law. The effects of Union law on criminal procedures and law are tackled in light of how this subject is approached in the context of “ne bis in idem”, the recognition of foreign judgements and the mutual recognition of European directives and framework decisions.
This book shows how the application of European law in national legal establishments is sometimes beset with problems. The goal of this book is not to provide an exhaustive analysis of these effects but rather a convincing and clear insight into the challenges affecting this area, by bringing together meticulous legal analyses and practical examples that are even sometimes on the playful side. The contributions weigh up the balance between theory and practice and will be warmly welcomed by magistrates and other legal practitioners who are better skilled at identifying when and how Community law should be applied. Johan Cuppens
*** MARIA FARTUNOVA: La preuve dans le droit de l'Union européenne. Bruylant (39 rue des Minimes, B-1000 Brussels. Tel: (32-2) 5480713 - fax: 5480714 - Email: commande@larciergroup.com - Internet: http://www.bruylant.be ). "Droit de l'Union européenne / Thèses" series, No. 36. 2013, 733 pp. €120. ISBN 978-2-8027-3561-8.
This work stems from a PhD paper obtained that won the Université Paris II Panthéon-Assas prize in 2011. Maria Fartunova is now a senior lecturer in public law at the Université Paris Est-Créteil. In this book she skilfully outlines the theory of proof in European Union law as a legal order in its own right. In the first part of the book, she seeks to illustrate how proof is obtained in Union law and how it is used. In the second part of the book she seeks to compare the rules for proof with the Union's legal principles. By following a functionalist approach, the author demonstrates how the study of derived law and case law tends to highlight a plethora of solutions in the area of proof and that these are specific to each domain (competition policy, Common Agricultural Policy, consumer policy and taxation, etc.) or based on a given jurisdictional approach. Nonetheless, despite this plurality, a certain coherency develops with regard to the need to ensure the effectiveness of Union law, which leads Maria Fartunova to suggest that we are witnessing, “the emergence of a law of proof in the law of the European Union”. (PBo)
*** EDOUARD DUBOUT, ALEXANDRE MAITROT DE LA MOTTE (Editors): L'unité des libertés de circulation. In varietate concordia ? Bruylant (see address attached). "Droit de l'Union européenne / Colloques" series, No. 27. 2013, 457 pp. €85. ISBN 978-2-8027-4179-4.
In addition to the diversity of their own individual systems, are the systems on the free movement of goods and workers, the freedom of establishment, freedom to provide services, the freedom of capital and the means of payment (and recently the freedom attached to European citizenship) subject to common principles? It is in an effort to provide answers to this question that an international colloquy was organised in March 2012 at the Faculty of Law at the Université Paris-Est Créteil by the research team “Sources of Law, Institutions, Europe”, in collaboration with the International and European Studies Centre at the University of Strasbourg. This book consists of the work undertaken at this colloquy. Legal specialists believe that nothing is static because freedom of movement itself is anything but stationary. As pointed out by Professor Dubout and Maitrot de la Motte in their forward, the freedom of movement is at the heart of the European project and the material law of the European Union, “ultimately seeks to develop a common area for the protection of law on transnational mobility” and that in actual fact we are currently witnessing, “the superimposing of European areas in their respective construction phases”. It is therefore not an easy task to divide them all into different well-defined legal categories. The book's editors explain that, “there are as many different regimes in this area as there are European freedoms, indeed there are more regimes than freedoms”. They also point out that the free movement of citizens cannot entirely be treated in an isolated way and that, “these have close ties with their economic equivalents in what we could describe as the construction of a European citizenship of the market”. In an attempt to provide further clarification on this question, the authors utilise a certain dialectical approach. After providing an historical perspective, they argue in favour of the thesis that claims there is a unity of freedoms of movement insofar as common problems have been observed in this context, such as market access and the criteria on barriers, the abuse of law and justifications for the said barriers. In addition to this thesis, there is also, however, the counterargument that claims that new contributory factors are “putting this unity to the test” by attacking elements such as strategic choices and disputes involving economic operators, citizens and individuals, the specificities attached to the freedom of movement of goods and capital and the potential contained within the right of establishment and the free provision of services. When we think of unity in this context, there is also the issue of synthesis through the classification of the different kinds of freedoms of movement in theory and the distinction between goods and people. (MT)
*** THOMAS DELILLE: L'analyse d'impact des réglementations dans le droit de l'Union européenne. Éditions Larcier (39 rue des Minimes, B-1000 Brussels. Tel: (32-2) 5480713 - fax: 5480714 - Email: commande@larciergroup.com - Internet: http://www.larcier.com ). "Faculté de Droit, d'Économie et de Finance de l'Université du Luxembourg". 2013, 725 pp. €115. ISBN 978-2-8044-6212-3.
Since 2002, the European Union has had an administrative instrument, the Regulation Impact Analysis which is supposed to help in the decision making process within the Community political area. The beginning of Thomas Delille's thesis seeks to establish where this innovation comes from and establish what position this mechanism currently occupies in administrative law. He subsequently demonstrates that this instrument stems from a specific political and institutional context, established around a certain understanding regarding political decision-making. With this as his starting point, the author identifies the practical implications of this instrument, as well as the way in which analysis is used by the different actors in the European political area in light of two precise case studies, namely, reform of specific sectors in the Common Agricultural Policy and the regulation on roaming prices. On this basis and after having meticulously analysed the modalities and different stages involved in the Regulation Impact Analysis, the author weighs up the quality and appropriateness of this instrument, particularly in light of the possible support it gives towards endorsing action in the Union. Thomas Delille's analysis is extremely well thought out and goes much further than the level of ambition that initially accompanied the introduction of this instrument. (PBo)