*** SAMANTHA BESSON, FRANCIS CHENEVAL, NICOLAS LEVRAT (Eds.): Des valeurs pour l'Europe? Values for Europe? Academia Bruylant (29 Grand Place, B-1348 Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgique. Tel: (32-10) 452395 - Fax: 454480 - email: promotion@academia-bruylant.be - Internet: http://www.academia-bruylant.be ). "Publications de l'Institut européen de l'Université de Genève" series, No. 3. 2008, 246 pp., €29 in Belgium and France (€31 elsewhere). ISBN 978-2-87209-906-1.
There are fashions that get implanted in the collective subconscious and become the norm, like talk of “European values” which has become so common in recent years that the “values of the European Union” is now in the second article of the Lisbon Treaty that is currently being ratified. Why is this? Samantha Besson and Nicolas Levrat explain in the first lines of the introduction to this book why there are so many disparate references to European vales in so much writing about Europe. What are European values exactly? Are they held in common by European countries or are they properly European? Assuming they can be identified, what is their role and what should it be? Should European values underlie the European project? If so, why has this only happened so very recently? Should they be actual policies? Or are they instead limits to the development of the European political project? Is it the European Union's job to protect and promote European values? These questions clearly deserve to be raised in order to get a clear idea on the issue. Following on from an academic seminar attended by doctoral students and lecturers at various faculties of 'Université de Paris I,' 'Université Libre de Bruxelles,' the Robert Schuman University in Strasbourg, Humboldt University in Berlin and Oxford University, this is a resolutely inter-disciplinary book expanding beyond legal issues to politics and moral philosophy and providing valuable scientific answers.
The first section of the book looks at the role and the nature of values in Europe. Based on the notion of liberal pluralism, Prof. Justine Lacroix (Université Libre de Bruxelles) notes in her essay “in practical as much as normative terms, the importance of avoiding calling upon common values in the European context”, preferring instead to talk about an EU based on laws. Dagmar Comtesse (Frankfurt-am-Mein University makes the case that the true values required for the legal construction of Europe are those of a liberal political culture as a meta-value that takes form in practice in political debate to legitimise legal standards. Taking a functionalist approach, Sonja Dänzer (Zurich University) analyses three “strategies to define Europe in the light of values and norms,” rejecting the “cultural-historical strategy,” and arguing that a “political-institutional” strategy is crucial for the future of the European Union, along with a “strategy based on people's values.”
There are four essays in the second part of the book on "the content of so-called European values". Prof. Vlad Constantinesco (of Robert Schuman University in Strasbourg) describes the various guarantees of European values in the draft Constitution and then the Lisbon Treaty, arguing that the "normative culture developed in fifty years of integration into the European Union's distinctive quality". Sacha Meuter (Freiburg University) shows “how the plurality of values underlying freedom of expression as guaranteed by the European Convention on Human Rights works as a guide to the various choices to be made in the implementation process.” Marynelle Debétaz (Freiburg University) looks at the question of linguistic diversity, calling for a "multi-level multilingualism" as a “key value in a democracy built for and by and plurality of European peoples.” Sylvie Ramel (Geneva University) examines the role of Europeanism in the protest speeches of two young people's movements in Serbia and Bosnia Herzegovina “to assess the role of the EU as a value-bearer and not only in political, economic and institutional terms.”
The third part of the book is made up of five essays on the on implementation of values in Europe, whether in terms of autonomy of the EU's legal system, the rule of law, the role of human rights in the EU's foreign policy or the role of European values in the debate about Turkey joining the EU. The question of Turkey is the only essay written by a specialist rather than an academic, in the person of an expert on the question at the European Commission, Alain Servantie. By way of an epilogue, philosopher Francis Cheneval (Zurich University) considers European intellectuals as stateless citizens, calling on them not to wriggle away from the two countries of which they are citizens, namely "the country of their birth and formative years and the country of their public reason that extends beyond any nation state". This final sentence is a good summary of the spirit that pervades this book, the full value of which will only be appreciated by an expert readership. .
Pierre Bouvier
*** HUGH COLLINS: The European Civil Code. The Way Forward. Cambridge University Press (The Edinburgh building, Cambridge CB2 8RU, UK. Tel: (44-1223) 326050 - Fax: 326111 - email: directcustserve@cambridge.org - Internet: http://www.cambridge.org ). "Studies in European Law and Policy". 2008, 267 pp. ISBN 978-0-521-71337-5.
The European Union has achieved something that was unthinkable when it was set up, namely managing to bring together twenty-seven Member States. Some believe that the EU should remain at twenty-seven, and some even argue that twenty-seven countries is too many. Others, however, try to get the unification process to go further on the grounds that the European Union is a political structure without a specific community; it is a government system for a continent whose territory is fragmented into a series of political and cultural communities which are not very aware of each other or are even entirely ignorant of one another. Although nations have delegated some of their powers to the EU institutions, the absence of an integrated civil society means that political union is often fragile and dysfunctional. The author argues that in order to survive over time, a social order requires exchange and interaction between its various representatives, from private associations, family connections and all other types of links among individuals in their daily life. As these relationships are gradually repeated and change, then an idea can develop of belonging to the same community, a common identity basically. Once established, such a community will demand and accept political union, a single system of governance. But thus far, the European Union has not been able to create social links by giving citizens the right to shrug off national borders. In order to fill this gap, Hugh Collins, professor in English law at the London School of Economics, argues for the creation of a European Civil Code to provide uniform rules for contracts, the law of ownership and civil law. In addition to facilitating trade within the Common Market, it would set up a denser network of transnational relations in civil society, which in turn would make it possible to get round popular resistance to the European political institutions. The advent of such a European civil society would then make it possible, the author argues, to sketch out a European social model that is capable of protecting citizens against the ever-increasing pressures of the market.
(NDu)
*** WILLIAM A. MALONEY, JAN W. VAN DETH (Eds.): Civil Society and Governance in Europe. From National to International linkages. Edward Elgar Publishing (Glensanda House, Montpellier Parade, Cheltenham, Glos GL50 1UA, UK. Tel: (+44-1242) 226934 - Fax: 262111 - email: info@e-elgar.co.uk - Internet: http://www.e-elgar.com ). 2008, 267 pp. ISBN 978-1-84720-758-6.
The European Union is still embattled over its legitimacy problems arising from the lack of enthusiasm among ordinary people and some parties are examining ways of getting people more involved in the European project. The authors of this study look at the EU decision-making process, paying particular attention to the successful (and unsuccessful) attempts to get citizens, associations, lobbyists and other interest groups more involved. Coming from different academic disciplines, having met at a conference in Germany in 2005 organised in connection with the Connex network, they have used two analysis methods to determine the exact scope of the various measures. The first, described as "bottom up," focusses on the effects of Europeanisation of civil society at local level. The second, known as "top down," considers the impacts of the integration process on the ground. The first is discussed in the first half of the book, followed by the second. They both attempt to determine the relations and interdependence between the various spheres of the European decision-making system in order to determine which groups (NGOs, lobby groups etc.) have the greatest impact at any particular level and how their action influences other spheres of the EU system. Particular attention is paid to the ability of these groups to stimulate involvement and trust in EU institutions and how trust can be built.
(NDu)
*** ULF BERNITZ, JOAKIM NERGELIUS, CECILIA CARDNER (Eds.): General Principles of EC Law in a Process of Development. Editions Wolters Kluwer (Kluwer Law International, PO Box 316, 2400 AH Alphen aan den Rijn, The Netherlands. Internet: http://www.kluwerlaw.com ). "European Monographs", No. 62. 2008, 453 pp. ISBN 978-90-411-2705-1.
This book follows on from a conference organised in Stockholm in March 2007 by the Swedish Network for European Legal Studies. The participants, all academics, focussed on changes in the general principles of European law and its application in the new Member States, and the emergence of new principles relating to democracy, transparency, good administration and EU citizenship. In nineteen essays, they cover domains like competition, financial integration, the constitutionalising of the EU, the instrumental role of the European Court of Justice, and identifying possible new principles that have arisen over the past decade. A detailed study which is aimed at specialists.
(NDu)
*** GERHARD RESSEL, HENRIEKE STAHL (Eds.): Die Slaven und Europa. Peter Lang (1 Moostrasse, CH-2542 Pieterlen, Switzerland. Tel: (41-32) 3761717 - Fax: 3471727 - email: info@peterlang.com - Internet: http://www.peterlang.com ). "Trierer Abhandlungen zur Slavistik", No. 8. 2008, 390 pp, €52-80. ISBN 978-3-631-58175-9.
Edited by two Slav literature and language professors at Triers University in Germany, this is a collection of essays in many disciplines - philosophy, German, Romanian, Slav languages, musicology, ethnology, politics, sociology, law and political economy. The various contributions look at a wide range of subjects like Slavs in Europe and their contribution to European federalism, a comparison of Western literature with the literature of the Soviet Union, regionalisation of the Polish economy, and the Balkans as an area of European tension. The originality of the book lies in the fact it brings together in one study an examination of Slav culture wherever it is found in Europe. The articles will feed into a debate on the common European identity which could develop into political and economic integration and also widescale interaction between the various cultures.
(EPi)
*** BERNARD DEFLESSELLES: Le processus de réforme et d'adhésion à l'Union européenne de la Turquie. Délégation pour l'Union européenne de l'Assemblée nationale (Boutique de l'Assemblée nationale, 7 rue Aristide Briand, F-75007 Paris. Tel.: (33-1) 40630033 - Internet: http://www.assemblee-nationale.fr ). "Rapport d'information" series, No. 1334. 2008, 67, €3-50. ISBN 978-2-11-125016-1.
After a visit to Turkey, the author of this newsletter explains that the process of Turkey joining the EU is coming up against domestic political tension and also suffering from the economic crisis, the crises in the Caucasus region and the Middle East, and the need to win hearts and minds in Europe.
(MT)
*** AZAR GAT: War in Human Civilization. Oxford University Press (Great Clarendon Street, Oxford OX2 6DP, UK. Tel: (44-1536) 741017 - Fax: 741894 - Internet: http://www.oup.com ). 2006, 822 p., 14,99 £. ISBN 978-0-19-923663-3.
Professor of national security at the politics department of Tel Aviv University in Israel, Azar Gat examines in this ambitious book one of the oldest mysteries of human society, war. Why do human beings go to war and destroy and kill so many people? Is it due to human nature or is it a cultural invention? Have human beings always fought among themselves or did they only start fighting with the advent of agriculture and no longer moving around? What role has war played in the development of human consciousness and what influence has human consciousness had on war itself? These questions are not new but have been ignored by academia on the grounds that the subject was 'too wide' for serious discussion. The author starts from the origins of humanity, trying to define whether, as Rousseau believed, it was the birth of agriculture, private property and the state that led to war. The author then looks at disciplines like ethnology, anthropology, archaeology and political science to retrace the history of war, which is in fact the history of humanity from the first hunter-gather groups to the present day. He aims in this way to find which of the two lines of thought is the more accurate. A monumental and fascinating book from cover to cover which, despite not having the final word to say on the history of war, sheds plentiful light on the matter.
(NDu)