How has European Union developed since its origins in the reconstruction of Europe in the wake of the Second World War, and why has it developed in this fashion? The principal theme of this book maintains that the EU is a site for the management of the interdependence of the States that are its members. A whole host of challenges - from climate change to security to migration to economic reform - can be tackled more effectively through multilateral action than by unilateral State action and the EU has become the principal location for that action in common. In essence, the States of the EU are stronger together than apart. In order to achieve multilateral action and participation, the EU requires its own legal order, comprising a range of legislative competences, political and judicial institutions, and a carefully shaped relationship with national law. In one sense, this legal order represents control over State autonomy yet in another it serves as means to ensure States, acting collectively, can meet the aspirations of their citizens in an interdependent world. The EU, as its power has increased, also needs to address questions of democracy, accountability, respect for fundamental rights and for national and local diversity. It should not be measured against the same benchmarks of legitimacy as a State as it will always fail, but it does need to achieve legitimacy. It needs, in short, values. And its Treaties aspire to grant it values. Does its system of governance, heavily implicated in the conferral of rights on individuals enforceable against the EU and Member States, today in areas far beyond the economy, live up to those aspirations? And can it? That is the terrain mapped by this book.

Examining the growing issue of EU Member States' defiance in the face of EU law, this volume outlines the development and history of this crisis, and offers a theoretical and comparative analysis of the difficulties the EU is facing in their attempts to enforce Member State to comply with European integration, suggesting solutions for the future.

In recent years the European Union has enjoyed a significant increase in its profile at both national and international levels. This book explains how the legal rules which underpin the process of integration in the European Union have been shaped in order to give effect to the Union's objectives. It is accordingly suitable as an introductory text designed to expose the reader to the basic constitutional and substantive principles of European Union law. Union law exerts an increasingly profound impact on domestic law and this book will equip a lawyer unfamiliar with the principles of Union law with an awareness of when and why Union law is of relevance in domestic litigation. The evolution of Union law continues apace. Increasingly its law has developed as an instrument of market integration and of market regulation. However recent years have witnessed controversy concerning the appropriate allocation of responsibilities between the Union's own institutions and national authorities. This book provides a fully up-to-date assessment of the changing shape of the European Union and its legal structure.

Recoge: 1. From Paris to Lisbon, via Rome, Maastricht, Amsterdam and Nice. 2. Fundamental values of The European Union. 3. The "Constitution" of The European Union. 4. The legal order of The EU. 5. The position of Union law in relation to the legal order as a whole.

Andrew Williams analyses the role of values in the European Union and suggests how to make the EU more just.

This title is a comprehensive textbook of EU constitutional law, setting out the structure, values, procedures, and policies of the European Union. It is a first point of reference for issues of EU constitutional law. The book encompasses six major parts. The first part addresses the formation history of the European Union, the treaties, the accessions, and the withdrawal of the United Kingdom. The second part covers the competences of the European Union. It contains an extensive analysis of the key constitutional principles governing the exercise of competences by the Union and the balance of power between the Union and its Member States, followed by an in-depth anaylsis of EU citizenship and the four freedoms, followed by an overview of the main internal and external policy domains. The third part addresses the role and workings of the various institutions (European Council, Council, European Parliament, Commission, European Court of Justice, and European Central Bank), the position of the Member States of the Union, and various other institutional matters. Part four explores the various decision-making processes, addressing not only the legislative and executive decision-making, but also the budget, CFSP, and external action. The fifth part looks at the legal instruments and the position of EU law in the EU and national legal orders, with an attention to the key principles of primary and direct effect, and the role of fundamental rights and the Charter of Fundamental Rights. The final part sets out the complete and coherent system of judicial protection in the European Union, offering an overview of the various courses of action before the EU courts and in the national legal orders to enforce EU law or to obtain judicial protection.

This book challenges the idea that the Rule of Law is still a universal European value given its relatively rapid deterioration in Hungary and Poland, and the apparent inability of the European institutions to adequately address the illiberalization of these Member States. The book begins from the general presumption that the Rule of Law, since its emergence, has been a universal European value, a political ideal and legal conception. It also acknowledges that the EU has been struggling in the area of value enforcement, even if the necessary mechanisms are available and, given an innovative outlook and more political commitment, could be successfully used. The authors appreciate the different approaches toward the Rule of Law, both as a concept and as a measurable indicator, and while addressing the core question of the volume, widely rely on them. Ultimately, the book provides a snapshot of how the Rule of Law ideal has been dismantled and offers a theory of the Rule of Law in illiberal constitutionalism. It discusses why voters keep illiberal populist leaders in power when they are undeniably acting contrary to the Rule of Law ideal. The book will be of interest to academics and researchers engaged with the foundational questions of constitutionalism. The structure and nature of the subject matter covered ensure that the book will be a useful addition for comparative and national constitutional law classes. It will also appeal to legal practitioners wondering about the boundaries of the Rule of Law.

The EU now possesses a clear legal basis for taking action on criminal law matters and steering the policy and practice of Member States in relation to crime and criminal law. However, for what is now an important area of law, there remains a striking absence or uncertainty regarding its theoretical basis, its legitimacy and its conceptual vocabulary. This book offers a review of the significance of EU criminal law and crime policy as a rapidly emerging phenomenon in European law and governance. Bringing together an international set of contributors, the book questions the nature, role and objectives of such 'criminal law', its relationship with other areas of EU policy and law, and the established rules of criminal law and criminal justice at the Member State level. Taking up such subjects as the application of criminal law across national boundaries and in the broader European context, effective enforcement, and the working out of a new European policy, the book helps to structure an increasingly significant subject in law which is still finding its direction. The book will be of great use and interest to researchers and students of EU law, criminal justice, and criminology.

Legal theory has been much occupied with understanding legal systems and analysing the concept of legal system. This has usually been done on the tacit or explicit assumption that legal systems and states are co-terminous. But since the Rome Treaty there has grown up in Europe a `new legal order', neither national law nor international law, and under its sway older conceptions of state sovereignty have been rendered obsolete. At the same time, it has been doubted whether the `European Union' that has grown out of the original `European Communities' has a satisfactory constitution or any constitution at all. What kind of legal and political entity is this `Union' and how does it relate juridically and politically to its member states? Further, the activity of construing or constructing `legal system' and legal knowledge becomes visibly problematic in this context. These essays wrestle with the above problems.

This is an open access title available under the terms of a [CC BY-NC-ND 4.0] License. It is free to read, download and share on Elgaronline.com. This thought-provoking book examines the socio-legal mechanisms that drive EU constitutional tensions, as well as the role of principles and values in re-directing EU law and policy towards a democratic Social Europe. It addresses the current limits of Social Europe in relation to different areas of EU law, offering a critical assessment of the present status of EU integration.