*** MATEJ AVBELJ: The European Union under Transnational Law. A pluralist Appraisal. 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 ). “Modern Studies in European Law,” No. 84. 2018, 177 pp, £55. ISBN 978-1-5099-1152-3.
Have the many diverse crises that have converged since the start of the millennium, plunging the European Union into the existential crisis that is now threatening to kill it off under the battering of populists and nationalists, been properly managed by political leaders, those of the European institutions and those of the member states alike? Haven’t the latter made the mistake of wearing themselves out in search of strictly internal organisational solutions? That is what Matej Avbelj believes, and in this book he invites them to stop gazing at institutional and constitutional navels and to open themselves to transnational players with different and varying legal statuses. The latter, he says, ‘importantly affect the EU's internal functioning as a whole and challenge its capacity to function as a well-ordered polity.’
Arising from a scientific study of long duration, this book therefore presents itself as an urgent invitation to become aware of the transnational law that these players have given rise to and, even more urgently, to reflect on the relation to be built between this transnational law and European law in the light of the very tangible problems that it constantly raises for the Union in terms of the EU's values, namely the rule of law, democracy, the protection of human rights and justice. Lecturing today in European law at Nova Univerza in Slovenia, Matej Avbelj relies throughout the book’s eight chapters on the theory of principled legal pluralism to i) provide ‘a revised pluralist understanding of the conventional concept of law’; ii) develop a ‘compelling, rigorous conceptual account of transnational law and of the EU’; iii) defend the view that the relationship between the latter is best conceived of in terms of principled legal pluralism; iv) demonstrate using case studies on now the above-mentioned European values are treated (mistreated) that they ‘are best secured if and when the relationship between EU law and transnational law is conducted following the normative prescriptions of principled legal pluralism.’
It goes without saying that the wealth and innovative character of a book of this nature cannot be resumed in the few lines of a presentation. We will therefore restrict ourselves to mentioning a few aspects of selected case studies. The author chose the Kadi ruling of the European Court of Justice to argue that the rule of law in the EU and the rights of the person concerned in this case would have been ‘best secured if and when the relationship between EU law and transnational law is conducted following the normative prescriptions of principled legal pluralism.’ In terms of respect for democracy in the EU, it is the impact that transnational private corporate law and transnational private administrative law had on them that is appreciated in a critical manner, the author not hesitating to warn in the introduction that the interaction of transnational law and European law ‘has led to a pre-emption of democracy across the institutional, substantive and economic domains at the national and supranational levels of the EU.’ He adds, implacably: ‘Credit rating agencies have acted as the gatekeepers of the global financial markets, which have relied more on their ratings than on the political assurances of states and the EU in need of fresh capital.’ It is obvious that democracy does not emerge from this unscathed as is seen today in the rising power of populists who are only too happy to be able to have a go at Europe which,’ in the absence of funds, cannot perform its basic function of being a system of government based on veritable self-determination.’ What else is there to add other than the protection of human rights analysed in the light of how Google and Facebook take liberties with the right to privacy, and the author convincingly demonstrating, backed up with evidence, that transnational law is a trouble-maker generating injustice in the EU.
Michel Theys
*** MICHALIS CHRISSOMALLIS (Ed.): Le principe de l'état de droit dans l'ordre juridique de l'Union européenne. Études. Editions Nomiki Bibliothiki (23 rue Mavromichali, GR-10680 Athens. Tel: (30-210) 3678800 – Fax: 3678922 – Email: info@nb.org – Internet: http://www.nb.org ). 2018, 264 pp, €25. ISBN 978-960-622-410-2.
In this collection of essays, the fundamental principle of the rule of law is examined which, by its universal and horizontal character, is an obligation on the EU's institutions in the exercise of their powers, notably for the protection of people, and also on the member states, whose adhesion to the rule of law is, moreover, a prerequisite. The study is comprised of eleven contributions written by seven academics specialising in law, be it constitutional law, European law or international law. Coordinated by Prof. Michalis Chrissomallis (University of Athens), the essays do not only describe what EU acquis is in terms of respect for the fundamental principle of the primacy of law, providing pertinent information for the reader in this respect, but also identify ‘grey areas’ where, in the context of European integration, the rule of law is tested, the author proposing solutions to fill the gaps he observes. Finally, the book usefully refers to European Court of Justice case law in this domain and is enriched by a lavish Greek and non-Greek bibliography and a useful alphabetical index. (AKa)
*** EVANGELOS KALAVROS, THEODOROS GEORGOPOULOS: Le droit de l'Union européenne. Le droit institutionnel. Editions Nomiki Bibliothiki (see above). 2017, 291 pp, €35. ISBN 978-960-622-259-7.
This book by two European law professors at Thrace University aims to be a complete and profound approach to European law, this first volume beings specifically devoted to institutional law. It incorporates legislative developments covering the action of the European Union’s institutions, giving a dedicated space to substantive law. In the introductory chapter, the authors carry out a flash-back in history, returning to the sources of the timeless idea of European unification before describing the various stages of its implementation and then placing it in a constitutional perspective. They also sketch out a conceptual delimitation of EU law based on hefty bibliographic documentation. The book is then divided into three parts. The first sees Kalavros and Georgopoulos examine the EU's nature, structure and powers. In the second section, they present and analyse its institutional organisation and functioning in the light of the action of the institutions and other bodies, for example the European Council, the Council of Ministers, the European Commission, the European Parliament, the Court of Auditors, the European Central Bank, the Economic and Social Committee and the Ombudsman. The third part is devoted to the fundamental question of the European legal order, the authors examining the latter’s fundamental principles and particular character. Finally, there is an examination of questions relating to the sources of European Union law, along with the judicial protection system it establishes. The book is enriched by an alphabetical index with reference to basic European Union legal terms and a vast bibliography. (AKa)
*** GIANCARLO VILELLA: Being European. Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft (3-5 Waldseestrasse, D-76530 Baden-Baden. Tel: (49-07221) 2104-0 – Fax: 2104-79 – Internet: http://www.nomos.de ). 2017, 105 pp., €24. ISBN 978-3-8487-4258-5.
Originally published in Italian (Essere Europei, Pendragon publishing house, Bologna), this book by a high-ranking official at the European Parliament does not resign itself to seeing the European Union misunderstood by citizens. As Klaus Welle, the institution’s general secretary, points out in the introduction, it is not ‘satisfying to have to refer to an identity that only knows what it is not.’ Because he is convince of this, the author, Giancarlo Vilella (who also lectures in two Italian universities), starts by presenting and analysing the fundamental characteristics of the European Union, ‘recalling’ one by one (but surely it is learning rather than recalling in too many cases?) that it was constructed bit by bit, stage by stage, that nothing has been imposed on its members, that decisions are taken collectively and it is a multi-level legal system, the only one of its kind. In the view of the author, these are all reasons that should lead citizens to make less negative judgements or, at least, indifferent judgements about what Europe incarnates. He also invites readers to demonstrate a more positive spirit when he deals with the big issues facing the EU today, be it the question of migration, terrorism or the rise in populism. His purpose here is not only to see where the limits of European powers lie, but also to have the honesty to take account of what has already been done to halt these phenomena. He arrives finally at analysing in the same spirit what has been the management of the economic, financial and budgetary crisis since 2008, which leads him in passing to point out (above all, in this case, to the responsible politicians) that the biggest coordination and cooperation in the economic and financial sectors were foreseen in the Maastricht Treaty as the first ‘necessary’ step towards European economic governance. An appeal ignored by those who thought ‘national interests could be protected by pursuing 'less Europe', without counting on the power of a number of countries headed by the United Kingdom to obstruct any further integration, and the big bang enlargement to countries in Central and Eastern Europe, wrongly fearing that they would be patronised or marginalised. The fresco thus drawn up leads the author to think that the criticisms which are made of the EU often arise from manipulation and ignorance, which is far more plausible than the feeling he expresses that it would be enough for settling the current problems to boost the system without having to fundamentally adjust it. (PBo)
*** The Federalist. A political review. Edif (8 Villa Glori, I-27100 Pavia. Internet: http://www.thefederalist.eu ). 2017, 143 pp, Annual subscription €35 (Europe), €50 (elsewhere).
The current issue of this symbolic federalist publication includes three editorials. The first two were thought through and written up in July and November of 2017 respectively, which explains why they are out-of-date in terms of some facts, but remain fully pertinent and instructive, on the other hand, when it comes to the fundamentals. The first looks at the call by the French president, Macron, for a new European sovereignty’ observing that this time, Germany no longer has any excuses for not seizing the opportunity being sketched out in Paris, the rising power of Alternative für Deutschland at the Bundestag – not to mention Donald Trump’s action at the White House – showing on the contrary the urgent need to make Europe more effective through being more integrated and more democratic. To this end, the editorialist points out the beneficial measures that featured in the ‘Reflections on European Policy’ in 1994 by Schaüble and Lamers, the monetary zone being then considered as ‘the hard core of political union.’ It was the rejection of this idea (by France in particular) that paved the way for ‘renationalisation of the EU’ by means of a forced return to intergovernmentalism and, consequently, to the law of the fittest. Hence the importune, says the review, of returning to the spirit of the Schaüble-Lamers plan in order to initiate a beneficial dynamic to lead the weakest countries of the eurozone, starting with Italy, to commit to a path of economic renewal no longer under constraint and opprobrium but in the framework of a federal system that ensures them aid and support. It is only under this condition that a hard core of shared sovereignty can become a reality. The November editorial bangs exactly the same drum, stigmatising once again in passing ‘the intergovernmental version of Europe that France has espoused until now,’ a version which ‘serves only to exacerbate the divisions between the member states, leaving the leadership in the hands of the strongest countries and all the rest resentful.’ Which is a good way to discern the true stakes of the upcoming European election. The final editorial is devoted to the review’s founder, Mario Albertini, while several other articles recall the action and heritage left by this friend of Altiero Spinelli’s. (MT)