*** JOEL RIDEAU (Edited by): De la Communauté de droit à l'Union de droit. Continuités et avatars européens. Librairie Générale de Droit et de Jurisprudence (31 rue Falguière, F-75741 Paris Cedex 15). 2000, 515 pages, 230 FF, 35,1 Euro. ISBN 2-275-01993-6.
With the beginning of the debate - awaited for much time… - on the finalities of the European building process, this work casts a few rays of light on this dossier. Fruit of a seminar organised by the Commission for the study by the European Communities and the Jean Monnet European centre of the University of Nice Sophia Antipolis, it sees eminent lawyers bring answers to a few determinant questions, if we intend to ascertain in a precise manner the present and future nature of the European Union.
In an introduction dedicated to the "uncertain rise towards the Union of law", Prof Joël Rideau admits from the outset that the "terms of the Community of law and the Union of law cannot fail to surprise the classic lawyers used to reserving the term of law to the State". Though, the concept has taken root. The paternity of the Community of law formula comes to Walter Hallstein who, while President of the European Commission, used it during a conference made in 1959. It was then consecrated by the Court of Justice, in particular in its ruling on The Greens on 23 April 1986 stipulating that "the Community is a Community of law in that neither its Member States nor its institutions escape the control for conformity of their actions from the basic constitutional charter that is the Treaty". For Prof. Rideau and his peers, "this significant formula however does not exhaust all the content of the State of law" and the fact that the Court in Luxembourg considers the existence of a Community of law as an acquis from which it draws the consequences cannot constitute, at this stage, the final word: "However is he sure that the Community of law is entirely complete? Is it not, in certain aspects, an objective not yet achieved and towards which developments move, but have not yet been totally achieved? The creation of a European Union only being an aspiration to become a Union of law, has it allowed to enhance the Community of law and to what extent? This creation has, it, not been the bearer of new questions raised in particular by the Maastricht and Amsterdam Treaties?" Not counting that of Nice since then…
It is these questions and others of the same kind that the authors in the framework of this study which, once outlined a comparative perspective over the relative conceptions of the State of law, articulated answers in three parts. The first analyses the Community of law as an unfinished acquis, the contributions having as titles "an autonomous and hierarchical legal order", "the development of a system for the protection of human rights", "the jurisdictional control and its limits: concerning power of discretion of Community institutions" and "the legal instruments of external relations". The second part presents the Union of law, outlines and contains in particular a captivating reflection by Prof. Vlad Constantinesco (Robert Schuman University in Strasbourg) on "The constitutionalisation of the European Union" as well as a heated call by Prof. Pr. Antonio Tizzano (La Sapienza University Rome) in favour of the hierarchicisation of standards". The other themes broached in this framework are "the legal nature of the Union", "flexibility and Union of law", "democratisation and complicating of decision-making process", "enhancing of human rights protection within the EU", "towards the protection of new rights", the development of the jurisdictions, conditions for accession to the EU", CFSP at the services of human rights, EU assistance to the democraticisation of Russia and other States in the NIS… Finally a third part outlines a table of complementarities and conflicts between the States of law, the Community of law and the Union of law. All forming an unbeatable work of reference.
Michel Theys
*** ANGELA WARD: Judicial Review and the Rights of Private Parties in EC Law. Oxford University Press (Great Clarendon Street, Oxford OX2 6DP. Tel: (44-01865) 556767 - Internet: http://www.oup.com ). 2000, 368 pages, 60 £. ISBN 0-19-826822-X.
This book constitutes, in itself, a new event to be added to the catalogue of this prestigious publishing house. Specifically aimed at practitioners of law, those who study it and academics its author outlines in a clear and detailed manner a subject that is not easy to tackle, namely the rights of private partiers when they challenge or invoke Community law. Deputy Director of the Centre for European Legal Studies in Cambridge, Angela Ward notably arrives to the conclusion that it is far more difficult for people to gain satisfaction when they challenge the legality of the Community measures, than when they incriminate there non respect by the Member States. A revelation that opens the way to a… challenge of the entire legal architecture of the European Union and, more specifically the role played by the Court of Justice in favour of the establishment of a federal constitutional model. Angela Ward suggests as a result amendments to the Treaties. She favours among others to review certain tasks allocated to the Court of First Instance and the Court.
(GC)
*** JEAN-DOMINIQUE NUTTENS: Le Parlement français et l'Europe: l'article 88-4 de la Constitution. Librairie générale de droit et de jurisprudence (31 rue Falguière, F-75741 Paris Cedex 15). Collection "Bibliothèque constitutionnelle et de science politique", tome 100. 2001, 424 pages, 270 FF, 41.16 Euro. ISBN 2-275-02022-5.
The reading of this book on the 1992 constitutional revision which, in France, "enabled - at last - the European Parliament to exercise a right to oversee the drafting of Community law, as noted in the preface by Michel Barnier, European Commissioner and former French Minister for European Affairs, is particularly interesting at the time when, in the context of post-Nice, the EU15 are preparing to explore how to add value to the role of the national parliaments in the European building process (and when a politician as wise as the Finnish Prime Minister Lipponen says that, maybe, we should concentrate on the ways through which, the Member States may enhance their own system for the informing and involvement of their Parliament in the EU policy: see EUROPE of 13 April, p.7).
The author of this book rightly so places himself in a historical perspective, by noting that for a long-time, we hardly paid attention to the entry into force of the Treaty of Rome and the Constitution of the Fifth Republic, while it concerns of the core factors of the explanation of Article 88-4 of the Constitution. In fact, he underlines, one of the inspirational principals of the 1958 Constitution had been the need to establish a rationalised Parliament, to break with the governmental instability of the previous Republics, and numerous mechanisms where thus established to frame the parliamentary activity. Then, recalls the author, the implementation of the Single European Act could only enhance the feeling of separation of the French Parliament, though regular initiatives aimed at remedying it (such as the "European debates - without voting", organised regularly as of 1989 in the National Assembly by its President Laurant Fabius). To finally arrive at Article 88-4 stemming from the constitutional revision that had preceded the ratification of the Maastricht Treaty and which, according to Jean-Dominique Nuttens can be considered, after eight years of practice, as a wide-ranging reform, which the assemblies worked towards bringing to life despite serious difficulties. While for some, the scope of the 1992 constitutional revision remains nevertheless limited, the author cites among others which are not of the same opinion, such as Thierry Bréhier who wrote in Le Monde to grant the National Assembly and the Senate the right to vote, in public hearing, its opinions on draft European acts concerning tissues that are, in France, of a legislative nature, would be a true revolution compared to the French tradition and the institutional spirit of the 5th Republic. The author, in analysing the scope of the resolution adopted in the framework of Article 88-4 and the "induced effects" of this Article, shares that second interpretation and furthermore reaches the wider conclusion according to which it is entirely possible that, in their quest for a more democratic European Union, the Heads of State and Government are looking towards the future for a closer association of parliaments as a whole in the most important decisions.
(MG)
*** GERARD FUCHS: Art. 88-4 de la Constitution: textes soumis du 23 novembre au 22 décembre 2000. Délégation pour l'Union européenne de l'Assemblée nationale (4 rue Aristide Briand, F-75007 Paris - Internet: http://www.assemblee-nationale.fr ). "Les documents législatifs de l'Assemblée nationale" series, N° 2862. 2000,187 pages, 26 FF, 3,96 euros. ISBN 2-11-115092-4.
This information report presents twenty-eight draft Community Acts passed on by the French government to the National Assembly delegation to the European Union. These texts are attached to a file presenting the content of the proposal and the position adopted by the Delegation.
(MT)
*** ULF BERNITZ, JOAKIM NERGELIUS (Edited by): General Principles of European Community Law. Kluwer Law International (PO. Box 322, 3300 Dordrecht, Netherlands. Tel: (31-78) 6546454 - E-mail: sales@kli.wkap.nl - Internet: http: //http://www.kluwerlaw.com ). "European Monographs" series, N° 25. 2000, 244 pages. ISBN 90-411-1402-5.
This work reproduces a series of contributions - adapted to the written style and enriched - issued during a study day organised in August 1999 in Malmo by the Swedish Network for European Legal Studies in collaboration with the Faculty of Law of the University of Lund . The aim of this very high level meeting was to analyse the general principals that prevail in the framework of the Community legal order and, in particular, the isolate their role in the creation of a jus commune europaeum. Thus the authors analyse one after the other the impact of these general principals at the national level, the way in which they are "transformed" in the national legal systems, to the point that they constitute instruments to the services of "gentle harmonisation" of the law applicable at the national level, the activism of the European Court of Justice…
(MT)
*** JEAN-MARC FAVRET: Les influences réciproques du droit communautaire et du droit national de la responsabilité publique extracontractuelle. Editions A. Pedone (13 rue Soufflot, F-75005 Paris. Tel: (33-1)43540597 - Fax: 46340760). 2000, 442 pages, 240 FF. ISBN 2-23300370-5.
Issued from a thesis supported in 1999 at the University of Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne, this work would interest administrators, community workers and, to a lesser extent, comparatists. Thus, either way, only informed lawyers! Today lecturer in public law and the Bordeaux Institute for Political Studies, Jean-Marc Favret studies, in a first part, the influence exercised by national law on the system of extra-contractual responsibility of the European Community. The author shows among others that the Community judges operate selective borrowing or the "variable geometry" of national laws. He then studies, in the second part, the influence of Community law on national laws of non contractual responsibility of public powers.
(MT)
*** KLAUS-DIETER BORCHARDT: L'ABC du droit communautaire. European Commission (Office for the official publication of the European Community, L-2985 Luxembourg). "Documentation européenne" series. 2000, 115 pages. ISBN 90-828-7804-X.
Edited by DG Education/Culture in the Commission in all the EU languages, this brochure - which is in its fifth edition - described the European legal order by addressing the largest number of citizens. They not being lawyers, the author present the Treaty texts in an accessible language, while remaining rigorous with regard to the information provided.
(MT)
*** SEAN VAN RAEPENBUSCH: Droit institutionnel de l'Union et des Communautés européennes. De Boeck (diffusion: Accès+, 4 Fond Jean-Pâques, B-1348 Louvain-la-Neuve. Tel: (32-10) 482500 - Fax: 482519 - E-mail: acces+@deboeck.be). 2001, 633 pages, 1,780 FB, 290 FF. ISBN 2-8041-3691-4.
Member of the Commission legal service presently detached as a source of reference to the Court of Justice, Sean Van Raepenbusch presents, in this work which is in its third edition, the notes of the course he gives at the University of Liege. He mainly seeks to outline to basic concepts, the foundations and the institutional balance of the multinational legal system being created, his message being that the most important is not only in the knowledge that one has of an area, but the way of analysing it with the help of concepts and those the institutional law accompanies the material law. The author wanted to offer a sort of manual that is not an alignment of the rules ready made, but a working tool to be used for a developing reality. He also grants supported attention to the dispute, in particular judicial control of the action of the Community institutions and the Member States, notably in the light of the rights conferred to individuals by the Community legal order.
(MT)
*** JEAN-MARC FAVRET: Droit communautaire du marché intérieur. Gualino (Paris. Tel: (33-1) 56541600 - Fax: 56541649). 2001, 192 pages, 108 FF, 16.46 euros. ISBN 2-84200-378-0.
This mémento is formed of two parts respectively dedicated to the principal of free movement (goods, people, services and capital) and the principal of free competition (the rules applicable to companies and those that are to public actions). Without entering in an excessive manner into the detail of this law and circumscribing his statements only to the internal market (the situation of the "special" markets such as agriculture or transport and relations, notably trade, which the actors in this market maintain with the rest of the world are deliberately ignored, EMU being, for its part, only raised to the extent where it entertains close relations with the free movement of capital and the freeing of financial services, Jean-Marc Favret offers the reader a global and synthetic analysis accessible to the widest audience. If the legal dimension of the internal market is privileged, the author tries to regularly draw attention to the other aspects, economic and political, of its realisation and its functioning. The book is enriched by a table of jurisprudence and an alphabetical index.
(MT)
*** Liaisons sociales Europe (BP 52, F-92502 Rueil-Malmaison Cedex. Tel: (33-1) 41299991 - Internet: http: //http://www.liaisons.sociales.com ). 11-24 April 2001, N° 30, 8 pages. Annual subscription: 3.000 FF, 457,35 Euros.
The Danone and Marks & Spencer cases present once more the issue of the revision of the Directive on European works councils. Other issues broached: "European employers play the social dialogue card, UNICE proposes to extend the negotiations on temping and to open a negotiation on teleworking; twice in succession, the European trade unions battle in retreat when hoping for an improbable support from the European Commission. Articles are also dedicated to the Spanish government, which presents itself as the arbiter in the face of the failure of the dialogue on the reform of the labour market and the way in which the French Parliament transposes the European Directives.
*** Europa regioni. AICCRE (86 piazza di Trevi, I-00187 Roma. Tel: (39-06) 69940461 - Fax: 6793275 - Internet: http://www.aiccre.it-europaregioni @aiccre.it). March 2001, N° 11, 13 pages. Annual subscription: ITL 100,000.
In summary: The European building process in 2003?, the future of online Europe, the Europe of civil society, European agreement on economic support to crime prevention programmes, the future of teleworking, EU aids to Italy, transparency and objectivity for a more democratic Europe, a Green Paper on fishing, the Committee of the Regions renews its Internet site and the linguistic diversity as a necessity…
*** Carrefour de l'économie. Données macro-économiques. Ministère belge des Affaires économiques (6 rue de l'Industrie, B-1000 Brussels. Fax: (32-2) 5134657). 2001/3B, 6 pages.
Subjects broached: turnover of companies according to VAT declarations, household consumption, turnover of retail trade, industrial production prices and agricultural prices, unitary values of external trade, geographic distribution of intra-community trade, currency, credit and stock markets, conventional wages, unemployment and gross domestic product.
*** RDT Info. DG Research at the Commission (Tel: (32-2) 2959971 - Fax: 2958220 - E-mail: research@cec.eu.int.). April 2001,N° 29, 39 pages.
In summary: a dossier on Mad Cow, "source of wisdom", news clothes of European research, allergic illnesses, the stake of stem cells, "swimming in clear waters" or the mastering of lead, "carbon sinks against greenhouse effect?", European heritage misunderstood by natural collections that will soon be accessible thanks to the database network created by the ENHSIN project, the work of historians on European identity, portrait of the mathematician Kontsevich, "simulate the worst to conjure it" in the field of nuclear safety…
*** Sustainable water use in Europe. Part 2: Demand management. European Environment Agency (Office for the official publications of the EC, L-2985 Luxembourg). 2001, 94 pages. ISBN 92-9167-268-8.
Pressures on water resources due to agriculture, industry and tourism. Though a share of the wastage lies on the use of water by households: 33% of water needs in a house leave by the toilet, 20-32% for baths and showers and only 3% for cooking food.
Reviews in short
*** Equilibres et populations. Paris, March 2001. Especially in Africa, but also among the immigrant populations in France, millions of girls are, each year, victims of practices with very heavy social and health consequences. *** Flanders. Brussels, March/April 2001. In summary: Flemish textiles as a synonym of quality, glance at 5 official sites, dependence with regards to fossils fuels, weakness of our industrial companies. *** Slovenia weekly. Ljubljana, 10 April 2001. The annual session of the Slovenia-EU association committee last 3 April in Ljubljana paints the contours of the future accession.