*** THEODORE KONSTADINIDES: The Rule of Law in the European Union. The Internal Dimension. Hart Publishing (Kemp House, Chawley Park, Cumnor Hill, Oxford OX2 9PH, UK. Tel: (44-1256) 302890 – fax: 842084 – Email: mail@hartpub.co.uk – Internet: http://www.hartpub.co.uk ). “Modern Studies in European Law” series, No. 78. 2017, 180 pp. £55. ISBN 978-1-8494-6470-3.
The principle of the rule of law is a cornerstone of the European Union. Therefore, Article 2 of the Treaty as validated in Lisbon, proclaims that the Union is founded on the values of respect for human dignity, freedom, democracy, equality, the rule of law and respect for human rights, including the rights of persons belonging to minorities. As pointed out by Professor Takis Tridimas (King’s College London) in his preface to this book, this article also states that, “these values are common to the Member States in a society in which pluralism, non-discrimination, tolerance, justice, solidarity and equality between women and men prevail”. These principles and values are therefore officially proclaimed, but what really happens to them in the Union?
It is to this question that Theodore Konstadinides seeks to provide some answers.
This senior lecturer in law at the University of Essex plays a pioneering role in this connection because no one before him has really sought to understand how the Union and its institutions interpret the rule of law in the sui generis entity of the European Union. As a specialist in constitutional principles and the division of competences between the European Union and its Member States, he effectively demonstrates how this principle has evolved throughout the successive phases of European integration. He also identifies the different areas of tension that this phenomenon has produced and the subsequent incoherences that emanate thereof. With the masterly hand of a senior legal practitioner he tackles head-on, “a topic whose importance can hardly be overstated”, according to the preface and he also provides responses to a number fundamental questions such as the question of the rule of law in a period when the state has, on a number of occasions appeared … under threat.
What are the standards of the EU rule of law and how do they differ from those of the national constitutions? Does the EU legal system provide the necessary mechanisms to ensure that both its institutions and the Member States are held to account? To what extent is it correct to say that Member States are treated equally? How can rule of law standards be articulated at EU level where Member States appear to challenge the core values of Article 6 by interfering, for example, with the independence of the judiciary? How can rule of law standards be articulated at EU level where Member States appear to challenge the core values of Article 6 by interfering, for example, with the independence of the judiciary? And how can the rule of law be upheld in the light of the multiple existentialist crises that have beset the EU over recent years, such as the torments afflicting the Eurozone, the resurgence of so-called "illiberal" democracies and the endless refugee crisis? These are the questions that act as the lightning conductor throughout the two parts of this book in which the author attempts to provide a number of substantial scientific responses. In the first part of the book, he provides an analytical guide to the meaning, legal geography and protection of the rule of law in the EU. In it he analyses the provisions in the Lisbon Treaty and Charter of Fundamental Rights that refer to the rule of law in a declaratory manner and in which he cherry picks certain justiciable principles that underpin it “as a restraint against abuses of power”. He also tackles the question of the “judicial construction” of the primacy of law and subsequently examines the way in which the European Court of Justice has been established in its caselaw and champion of this principle. In the second part of the book, the author analyses the way in which this principle is applied in practice by the European institutions and member states. In this way, he ultimately sheds light on and provides a critique of, “current trends of rule-of-law regression from both the EU and a national perspective”. This subject is summed in the terms used by Takis Tridimas in his preface when he refers to a European law that has become “less coherent, more uncertain and even less formal”. All the different reasons provided in this book demonstrate its usefulness and need to be vigilant in this connection.
Pierre Bouvier
*** IOSIF KTENIDIS: Le système législatif de l'Union européenne. Les catégories de droit secondaire en transition. Editions Sakoulas (23 rue Ippokratous, GR-10679 Athens. Tel: (30-210) 3387500 – fax: 3390075 – Email: info@sakkoulas.gr – Internet: http://www.sakkoulas.gr ). 2017, 291 pp. €30. ISBN 978-960-568-692-5.
The aim of this study is to create a public debate on the kind of law we need in the European Union and tackle certain crucial questions relating to the new legal instruments deriving from the Lisbon Treaty the implementation of decisions in each of the member states in this connection. Iosif Ktenidis is a European legal expert and in this book he proceeds to undertake a detailed analysis of the main categories of legislative, non-legislative and executive acts, in light of prevailing procedures. The procedure for adopting each act means that the new categories are connected to the law deriving from the institutions that developed them, a provision that was not contained in the Union's legal system before the most recent revision. The author highlights the need to include the new categories of secondary legislation into the Union's legal system that prevailed before the Lisbon Treaty. He also attempts to illustrate the different changes introduced, whilst taking into account the typology of the binding legal instruments in derived law (regulation, directive, decision) resulting from the founding treaties. For this reason, the first chapter in the study involves the author tackling the issue of the law in the Union from a point of view of the theory of judicial systems, while the second part allows him to identify certain fundamental systemic characteristics of European law. In the third chapter, Iosif Ktenidis examine the specific rules governing the adoption of instruments pertaining to secondary law, namely, what the European Court of Justice defines as the “judicial system of the treaties”. The author also attempts to identify how these rules have been established before the most recent revision. The fourth chapter focuses on the transition from the former regime to the innovations in the Lisbon Treaty. These innovations were prepared by the European Convention. The fifth and sixth chapters provide an analysis of the categories of the acts founded on the caselaw of the European Court of Justice, which has been extremely active at this level over recent years. Finally, in the seventh chapter, he provides an analysis of the point of view of certain individuals on specific questions relating to legal control and the protection of fundamental rights relating to the new categories. In his final observations, the author re-examines the key question of the hierarchy of secondary legal rules and the way in which the new categories of acts have an impact. (AKa)
*** GEORGES PREVELAKIS: Qui sont les Grecs ? Une identité en crise. CNRS Editions (15 rue Malebranche, F-75005 Paris. Tel: (33-1) 53102700 – Internet: http://www.cnrseditions.fr ). 2017, 184 pp. €20. ISBN 978-2-271-06585-8.
According to Georges Prévélakis, a professor at the University of Pantheon-Sorbonne and a specialist in the geopolitics of the Balkans and the respective diasporas, it is impossible to understand the current Greek crisis unless it is seen through the prism of its historic complexity that incorporate the territorial aspects and those of its citizens and religious history. Greece is perceived by other European countries in a rather ambiguous manner. It is either swooned over as the birthplace of democracy or regarded as an irritant and black sheep in Europe due to its refusal to, "comply with the image bestowed upon it, while it continues to exploit and reap the benefits”. These interpretations fail to understand that the world has evolved and the centre of gravity in the world economy is unceasingly displacing itself. It is also a failure to understand that Greece also has a number of unique advantages because, “neo-Hellenism provides the links and overtures towards the ‘new world’”. Located at the crossroads of Europe, Africa and Asia, Greece has always attracted foreign powers that have been interested in the question of geo-strategic control of the Eastern Mediterranean. It therefore benefits from foreign capital and investments but for the same reason it is also a major area of discord between the main powers.
Greece has few natural resources and is still perceived in certain quarters as a poor country or even an underdeveloped one. Since 1981, Greek political leaders have taken advantage of the situation in order to request generous assistance from Europe. European financial aid has certainly helped to develop connecting road infrastructure in the country and helped its agriculture to become more competitive. Nonetheless, the mistakes committed by the country’s leaders who, in an effort to better exploit the country's advantages, have not mobilised the necessary human resources to this end by providing “a stable and rational administrative political framework”. Quite the contrary, they have been sharing out the dividends of the situation between themselves… The author points out that young Greek citizens have become desperate with the negative vision of their country and the future promised them and they are leaving the country in droves. Nonetheless, the author also explains that Greece has undeniable resources that it should develop: it should not just encourage these talented intellectual youngsters to remain but should also attempt to attract foreign managers, given that the means of communication that now exist makes it possible to work at home. The diaspora could also play an important role, particularly in the country's technological development, through its globally recognised researchers.
With regard to more political and civilisation-related aspects, Professor Georges Prévélakis points out that the Greek people were the first to have suffered from the Westfalian structure imposed by Europe and it is also they who originally propounded the ideas of, “neo-Hellenism, the reliquat of Hellenic civilisation”. This specific profile also means that they would probably the first to be able to trace, “certain clues for understanding and managing the current phenomena intellectually and politically responsible for destabilising Europe" because it is undeniably true that “Europe needs Greece” if it wants to have a more nuanced approach to its euro-centrism and “renew its relationship with the ‘others’”. In other words, this is a message of love to his country, as well as one of hope... (ABu)
*** ALEXIS PAPACHELAS: Konstantinos Mitsotakis à travers ses propres mots : 1942-1974. Volume 1. Editions Papadopoulos (9 Kapodistriou, GR-14452 Metamorphosi. Tel: (30-210) 2846074-5 – fax: 2817127 – Email: info@epbooks.gr – Internet: http://www.epbooks.gr ). 2017, 392 pp. €18. ISBN 978-960-569-795-2.
One of the main political leaders in Greece after the war, Konstantinos Mitsotakis, uses this autobiography to tell the truth and nothing but the truth, he affirms, with regard to the most important political developments of the seven decades in which he was active. This takes the shape of personal interviews he gave in 2007-2016 to the journalist Alexis Papachelas, the director of the Greek newspaper “ I Kathimerini”. This was on one condition - that is ideas are not published until after his death aunties demand was respected given that he died on 29 May last year. This book is probably the most spectacular political testimony published over recent years. In it, Konstantinos Mitsotakis provides not only a fascinating account of his trajectory, which ranges from his contribution to preventing the civil war in Greece in 1943 up until the years when he was Prime Minister (1991-1993). This also includes his first entry into Parliament in 1946, the Civil War, the dictatorship under the colonels (1967-1974) and the return to democracy afterwards. With his very characteristic tone and his fluid and simple style, he makes's modern Greek with the dialect from Crete and provide a very living political history of these turbulent times. You're so provides and impeccable clarification of the different protagonists. This book is revealing, exciting, shocking and worrying. In addition to being an important Book with regard to the revolutions it contains, it is also shocking insofar as this is Greece as sketched by an extremely perspicacious politician who is also realistic and a significant player despite having faced much opposition. It is also and excellent way of discovering or rediscovering what happened and who were the main Greek and international political actors, as well as providing readers with a chronology, unprecedented documents and a lot of photos. (AKa)