*** GIULIANO AMATO, HERVE BRIBOSIA, BRUNO DE WITTE (Eds.): Genèse et destinée de la Constitution européenne - Genesis and destiny of the European Constitution. Commentaire du Traité établissant une Constitution pour l'Europe à la lumière des travaux préparatoires et perspectives d'avenir - Commentary on the Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe in the light of the 'travaux préparatoires' and future prospects. Bruylant (67 rue de la Régence, B-1000 Brussels. Tel: (32-2) 5129842 - Fax: 5119477 - Internet: http://www.bruylant.be ). 2007, 1,353 pp, €220. ISBN 978-2-8027-2343-1.
This colossal collection of essays in English or French was commissioned by the enlightened University Institute of Florence. It arises from remarkable work by the figureheads involved in the Convention that drew up the draft constitution, of European officials Paolo Ponzano, national diplomats like Etienne de Poncins of France and big names in the academic world. This hybrid mix is incarnated in an especially brilliant manner in the trio who edited the book: Giuliano Amato lectures in European law at the Florence Institute (he was formerly vice-chair of the Convention), Hervé Bribosia works at its Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies (he used to be a member of the Convention's Secretariat) and Bruno De Witte is 'merely' a professor of European Law at the Florence Institute …
The first section of the book looks at the "genesis of the European constitution". It starts with a retrospective of the constitutional process from its recent and distant origins (Nathalie Berger, Guy Milton and Jacques Keller-Noëllet), before putting into perspective the Convention's "ruptures and continuities" (Florence Deloche-Gaudez), the work of the Intergovernmental Conference (Bobby McDonagh) and the future ratification process (Jacques Ziller) that followed. The pen is then taken up by the Convention's 'stagehands', who describe the constitution's main innovations - and, for many today, the innovations of the Lisbon Treaty. The nature of the constitutional treaty, the constitutional foundations of the EU (fundamental rights and citizenship, democratic life, subsidiarity and sharing of powers, institutions, the decision-making system, the role of national partners, etc), constitutional aspects of its policies and foreign action are all studied meticulously with an eye on the future, and the editors explain in the preface that the authors of the commentaries aimed mainly to highlight the intent of the authors of the constitution rather than making a legal analysis of the texts. It is clearly the spirit of the innovations that is weighed up by the goldsmiths of the subjects under discussion.
The second part is devoted to future prospects for the European Union's constitutional process. Written before an exit route from the crisis caused by the French and Dutch no votes had been found, the second part seems more dated. It is based, moreover, on four scenarios that serve as a framework for the analysis of writers, most of whom are university experts in this section, who discuss the pursuit and end of the constitution ratification process, the re-negotiation and the new ratification process, 'informal' reforms of the existing primary law system and the differentiated constitutional process. We now know the outcome. These essays are instructive all the same in that they provide a critical appreciation of the innovations, most of which were kept in the Reform Treaty, while suggesting possible improvements. As a good illustration of the persistent relevance of the essays, we can take the example of the contribution by Renaud Dehousse on possible future developments to the treaty review clause, which is undeniably connected with a subject that remains very much in the news. Dehousse is Jean Monnet Professor and Director of the European Studies Centre at the 'Institut d'études politiques' (Sciences-Po, Paris). He shows that the European Union has reached the limits of what can be allowed by the current reform mechanisms and if it plans on continuing to evolve, it will have to cross the Rubicon and shake off the unanimous voting brake. Many people will agree with his analysis. Unanimous voting, he says, works in favour of defenders of the status quo, who are in theory prepared to come to terms with failure of an attempted reform. Should one, therefore, go as far as imagining the creation, if necessary, of a new legal structure alongside the European Union? Perhaps. Where would we be today if the six founder members of the ECSC had gone along with those who argued for reforming the Council of Europe to nip in the bud the desires of some to make progress?, asks Renaud Dehousse treacherously. This is certainly a fundamental question that should no longer be ignored, particularly if, unfortunately, a new accident were to occur in the near future…
Michel Theys
*** LAURENCE BURGORGUE-LARSEN, ANNE LEVADE, FABRICE PICOD (Eds.): Traité établissant une Constitution pour l'Europe. Parts I and IV - Architecture constitutionnelle - Commentaire article par article. Bruylant (see above). 2007, 1.106 pp, €115. ISBN 978-2-8027-2354-7.
In this section of a colossal work (the first was devoted to the Charter of Fundamental Rights, see European Library 676), some four dozen university professors and a handful of eminent lawyers working for an EU institution comment on each article in Parts 1 and IV of the treaty that was meant to establish a Constitution for Europe, and a selection of protocols and declarations annexed to it. These learned commentators explain the meaning and scope of the measures, which is useful for the measures that have been transferred to the Lisbon Reform Treaty. References to doctrine and case law are reproduced in the body of the text, with each commentary on an article being preceded by its own bibliography. Jurisprudential references are gathered together in a common index for all the commentaries. There is also an index of key words for finding the relevant commentaries and a general bibliography. It should be noted that a third volume will analyse the European Union's policies and functioning in the same way.
(PBo)
*** CLAUS DIETER CLASSEN, MARTIN NETTESHEIM, WOLFGANG GRAF VITZTHUM (Eds.): Thomas Oppermann, Jus Europaeum, Beiträge zur europäischen Einigung. Duncker & Humblot (Postfach 41 03 29, D-12113 Berlin. Tel/Fax: (49-30) 79000631 - E-mail: info@duncker-humblot.de - Internet: http://www.duncker-humblot.de ). "Tübinger Schriften zum Staats- und Verwaltungsrecht" series, No. 75. 2006, 512 pp. ISBN 3-428-12195-3.
Published on the 75th birthday of Prof. Thomas Oppermann, emeritus professor at Tubingen University in Germany, this book publishes thirty or so essays he wrote during his career, mainly over the past fifteen years. The book is a very rich collection of work by an extraordinary figure, an academic who, with the scientific distance required to be able to make objective observations of developments, has been able to tangibly and personally commit himself to the future of the European project. It is not for nothing that the title of the book is 'Contributions to European Unification'.
Born in 1931, his father was a professor at Heidelberg University in Germany. In the 1950s, Thomas Oppermann studied law at the universities of Frankfurt, Lyons, Freiburg-en-Brisgau and Oxford. From 1960 to 1967, he was part of the 'Europe' division of the German federal economic affairs ministry, headed at the time by Ludwig Erhard, and he was involved in Germany's integration in the Common Market (the book includes an eye-witness account of this team's functioning and contribution to Germany's positioning in Europe). Following his accreditation in 1967, he was appointed professor of public law (including EU and international law) and foreign policy at Tübingen University, where he had a brilliant career. He retired in 1999, and was invited by the government of Baden-Wurtemberg to work as an advisor to its minister-president Erwin Teufel, who was a member of the European Convention chaired by Valéry Giscard d'Estaing. One of the book's chapters looks at the author's comments and observations on the adventure and functioning of this new and original event for Europe that was the Convention, along with its facilitators. Readers will read with interest the essay on "Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, Père de la constitution européenne". With an honorary doctorate from a raft of universities in Europe, he was awarded the German Grand Cross of Merit in 2004.
The book echoes the personality with the six sections illustrating the diversity of his interests: I. Fundamental problems of European integration, looking at a series of legal issues and the sharing of powers; II. Personalities and Powers, with memories of various European 'players' he met and evaluated, and a chapter in French on "Du Plan Schuman au Traité d'Amsterdam: la coopération franco-allemande, moteur de l'intégration européenne"; III. The essence of European integration, analysing several fundamental problems on the nature and political significance of the EU; IV. The European Constitution, explaining his personal experience and the fundamental issues addressed by the Convention; V. The EU's foreign relations, with an interesting essay in English on "Cooperation, Association, Accession: Reflections on the Legal Opinions for the European-Israeli Economic Relationship"; and VI. Europe and Culture, with an analysis of the particular role played by the Franco-German television station Arte in this domain. A remarkable and very useful book for all historians of EU integration who want to enrich their research into an original and competent vision.
(GFr)
*** The Federalist. A Political Review. Edif (5 via A. Volta, I-27100 Pavia. Internet: http://www.thefederalist.eu ). 2007, No. 3, 65 pp. Annual subscription: €35 (Europe), €50 (elsewhere).
This issue of the publication close to the Movimento Federalista Europeo so dear to Altiero Spinelli's heart contains several articles looking at the link between the citizens and the Europe in being. One of particular note is an article in which Christophe Chabrot, professor of public law at Université Lumière in Lyons, France, discerns what the foundations of European democracy should be in the completed federal framework. He argues that "the Europe of projects" placed in the forefront after the rejection of the constitution is the bed-fellow of a non-political Europe, "not that of a society that shares a common destiny," and in which ordinary people would be the real holders of European sovereignty.
(MT)
*** STEPHANE DE LA ROSA: La méthode ouverte de coordination dans le système juridique communautaire. Bruylant (see above).“Travaux du CERIC” series. 2007, 692 pp. ISBN 978-2-8027-2454-4.
This book sheds light on the role of the Open Coordination Method (OCM) in the EU legal system. Intended to guide national policies towards convergence based on the most effective practices detected in the Member States, the OCM has been little studied to date. Through detailed analysis, the author takes on a complex subject, often seen an impossible to write about - to such an extent as to discourage legal research - the aim being to give legal identity to a political concept used ever more frequently by the European institutions. The research focuses on the social question and can be divided into two main approaches. The author starts by identifying the OCM, its origins and field of application before explaining how it meshes with the institutional mechanisms. The regulatory dimension, extending the EU's domain of European Union, renewing the mode of governance, the problems raised etc... Each aspect of OCM is dissected to enable the reader to better understand this new method of EU decision-making.
(TBa)
*** PIERRE PESCATORE: Vade-Mecum. Recueil de formules et de conseils pratiques à l'usage des rédacteurs d'arrêts. Bruylant (see above).“Droit de l'Union européenne" series. 2007, 317 pp. ISBN 978-2-8027-2473-5.
With this issue of his handbookm the first to be available to the general public, Pierre Pescatore adds new aspects to his practical advice, new aspects concerning innovations in the Court of Justice's style, re-examination and appeals, and two areas which have changed fundamentally since the 1985 edition. The first is none other than the development of information technology (with the creation of the Europa website and search engines like Eur-Lex, Curia, Minidoc and Canevas) which has encouraged the author to provide a legal definition of the paragraph and to point out that some unfortunate habits have come about as a result of the habits of judges and their bad taste (incorrect writing styles and the system of good points that the Court gives its advocates general in an arbitrary manner according to Pescatore)... The author then deals with the issue of the use of languages in legal proceedings. He says that the Court's aim is to be able to publish and distribute on the day of a ruling the original version in the language of the proceedings and an optimum number of versions in the other official languages, particularly those which institutional practice now recognises as key languages. Clearly a useful book for all practitioners of EU law.
(TBa)
*** L'Europe en formation. Les cahiers du fédéralisme. Centre international de formation européenne (10 av. des Fleurs, F-06000 Nice. Tel: (33-4) 93979397 - Fax: 93979398 - E-mail: europe.formation@cife.org - Internet: http: //http://www.cife.org ). 2007, Nos. 3/4, 215 pp, €11. Annual subscription: €30.
This issue of the review founded by Alexandre Marc includes an article on the EU's security architecture (and the views of Germany, France and the United Kingdom respectively) and the role Europe can play in tackling the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.
(MT)