*** STEFAN VOGENAUER, STEPHEN WEATHERILL (Editors) : General Principles of Law. European and Comparative Perspectives. Hart Publishing (Kemp House, Chawley Park, Cumnor Hill, Oxford, OX2 9PH, UK. Tel: (44-1865) 517530 – fax: 510710 – Email: mail@hartpub.co.uk – Internet: http://www.hartpub.co.uk ). “Studies of the Oxford Institute of European and Comparative Law” series. 2017, 418 pp. £85. ISBN 978-1-5099-1071-7.
During its 20th anniversary, the European Institute of European and Comparative Law at Oxford University’s faculty of Law organised a conference in September 2015 on the features, aims and development of general legal principles. This book includes the contributions made during this occasion at which top-flight academics also demonstrated how European and comparative law interact.
Discussions about general legal principles subsequently led to where exactly they come from and who decides their content and application. It is clear that the essential question is establishing the purportedly neutral character of these principles that help to underpin the coherency of the legal system by ensuring their absolute legitimacy. This question lies at the very heart of this book and is tackled in the perspective of two general principles: a) proportionality, which is essentially understood as the restraining the exercise of legislative and administrative power by public authorities; b) protection of the weakest party, which is particularly understood as restraining the autonomy of private parties who enjoy superior economic power.
In this context, a “European challenge” needs to be tackled given that the general principles are required at a European Union level if the legal system within it is to be coherent. Although this is based on the successive treaties, which have remained very discreet in this connection, the European Court of Justice has not ceased, by way of its rulings, to attempt to provide a constitutional personality that directly engages with individuals but which is, in effect, no where near the international treaties that some quarters would like. To this end, it is amply assisted by the general principles that embody the European legal order and the crux of it in this battle is the European Charter of Fundamental Rights that became binding in 2009. Nonetheless, there is therefore the question of legitimacy insofar as the European Court of Justice adopted the general principles as the source of law within the legal order of the Union in circumstances that were going well beyond the explicit mandate of the treaties. The authors demonstrate, however, that a dynamic exists which has almost reached total consensus: those who worked on trying up the general principles of European law, “tend to be responsive to input from national laws, and the law of the Member States have no choice but to be responsive to the general principles developed at EU level”. The highlighting of this, “dynamic relationship between the ingenuity of the Court of Justice is the process for revising the treaties” is one of the main bolsters to this high level collective undertaking, which focuses in the final part of the publication, on the interaction between international, European and member state law. Pierre Bouvier
*** PANAYIOTIS LIARGOVAS, CHRISTOS PAPAGEORGIOU: Le phénomène européen. La consolidation et les efforts pour la réalisation de l’idée. Editions Tziola (91 rue Philipou, GR-54635 Salonia. Tel: (30-231) 0247887 – fax: 0210729 – Email: info@tziola.gr – Internet: http://www.tziola.gr ). 2017, 356 pp. €30. ISBN 978-960-418-678-5.
In this book, Panayiotis Liargovas, Director of the National School of Administration and a lecturer at several universities (Patras, Clark, Bologna, Athens and Salonica) and Professor Christos Papageorgiou (University of Patras) assess the foundations of the “European idea” and the first attempts to implement it. From the ruins of the Second World War, we therefore return to the genesis of the New Europe (1945-1950), the Schuman Declaration and the creation of the successive European Communities (1950-1958), the crisis linked to the pseudo-Luxembourg compromise and the first years of stagnation (1958-1969), to the Hague Conference and the crises of the 1970s (1969-1979), to the gestation of the Single European Act, from the passage of the single market to the goals of the Treaty on European Union (1986-1993). The authors then analyse the Amsterdam Treaty (1993-1999), the Treaty of Nice and the fifth and sixth enlargements (1999-2007), then finally the Lisbon Treaty up until 2013. This is a useful book for understanding the journey the European Union has made and why and where it is going. It also contains a vast bibliography and index that contain references to the main leaders from the very origins of the project to the present day. (AKa)
*** SOTIRIS DALIS: L'Europe « difficile ». À la recherche d'une nouvelle solidarité européenne. Editions Papazisi (2 rue Nikitara, GR-10678 Athens. Tel: (30-210) 3822496 – fax: 3809020 – Email: papazisi@otenet.gr – Internet: http://www.papazisi.gr ). « Politique européenne et internationale » series. 2017, 162 pp. 9.50. ISBN 978-960-023319-3.
The process of European integration cannot be justified unless it responds to the challenges of history. At the time of the 60th anniversary of the signing of the treaties of Rome, this fact should have been taken into account by member states, in order to provide them with a positive vision of the European Union, which has been so cruelly lacking over a certain period of time. This reminder is made in the book of Professor Sotiris Dalis (University the Agean), which makes an appeal to continue the unprecedented struggle that aimed, at the end of the Second World War, to rebuild Europe in an area of peace and mutual respect. The author teaches international relations and Mediterranean affairs also calls for the preamble of the treaty to be reviewed. In 1951 this gave life to the European Community of coal and steel and the hymn of cooperation and coexistence. He emphasises that we need to start again on this “concrete utopia” in identifying new areas of interest that can stem from European solidarity and help complete respective national interests given that the citizens of European countries are being called on to display their European credentials like never before. This essay is conceived as a means of convincing others that Europe is the only way of continuing to meet the challenges, as it previously was during the Cold War, the historic changes of 1989, as well as in the struggle to tame the power of globalisation. In this context it examines Greece, Brexit and new hopes for the European integration process arising from the election of Emmanuel Macron in France. (AKa)
*** ANTONIS METAXAS: L’Union européenne. Les textes réglementaires de base. Editions Sakoulas (23 rue Ippokratous, GR-10679 Athens. Tel: (30-210) 3387500 – fax: 3390075 – Email: info@sakkoulas.gr – Internet: http://www.sakkoulas.gr ). 2017, 593 pp. €23. ISBN 978-960-568-628-4.
Antonis Metaxas it Is a senior lecturer in political science and public administration at the University of Athens where he teaches European law. In this anthology he provides an analysis of the main regulatory texts constituting the primary law of the European Union and European convention of Human Rights. He also looks at the internal regulation of the European Court of Justice in a way that can provide an understanding of the organisation and functioning of this decisive institution in the development of the European legal system. The added value of this collection is the way in which the author provides a review of each article and subsequent keys for understanding the legislative proposals and the process of European integration in general. This critical approach also aims to assist lawyers and judges in their task, given that European law continues to further penetrate the national legal domains due to the primacy it exerts. (AKa)
*** SIMONE WEIL: Note sur la suppression générale des partis politiques. Editions Allia (16 rue Charlemagne, F-75004 Paris. Tel: (33-1) 42727725 – fax: 3761727 – Email: allia@editions-allia.com – Internet: http://www.editions-allia.com ). 2017, 47 pp. €3.10. ISBN 979-10-304-0504-0.
This text by the unique French philosopher and humanist was written in 1942 when Simone Weil was working as an editor for General de Gaulle’s Free French services. It was published for the first time as part of the La Table ronde Journal in February 1950. Its title is further enriched by the following quotation, “essential ideas for a new constitution”. She was destined never to leave United Kingdom and passed away there on 24 August 1943. During that time there she developed a joyful analysis of democracy and reasons criticising political parties due to “the fact that they exist is no reason to keep them”. She also points out that, “the real spirit in 1789 consisted in thinking that something is not simply right because the people want it but rather, in certain conditions, the wishes of the people have more chance than any other of complying with what is right”. She also highlights the fact that this desire should not be bereft of any “collective passion”. Is this not an idea that urgently requires a re-examination in the times we now live? (MT)