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The paper addresses the role of the Court of Justice in the European integration process, as well as, more broadly, tensions between constitutionalism and new governance. I propose an account, according to which the judiciary should not be seen as standing in an aloof place in the political order, and as opposed to a—pluralistic, irrational, and anarchical—society, but rather as part of a continuum on which other governance arrangements are also placed according to their share in ‘tribunality’—the deliberativeness of their decision-making processes and their openness to new facts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the relationship between the idea of coherence and the legal order set up by the European Community. It focuses on a specific dimension of this relationship and shows how the appeals to coherence made by the European Court of Justice have shaped a particular branch of the European legal order, namely, the judicial review of Community acts. The analysis of the Court of Justice's case law in this field shows that in its extensive use of coherence the Court of Justice explored and brought into play different types of coherence and, while it failed to distinguish between them, it made use of sorts of coherence that thus far legal theorists have disregarded. The article concludes that a closer collaboration between legal theory and legal practice would be profitable for both legal theorists and Community law specialists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper details certain fundamental considerations intended to clarify and advance the notion of a 'co-operative relationship' within the current lively debate on the relationship between European law and constitutional law. The argument is set against the background of the constitutional theory of separation of powers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The reaction to 11 September damaged the liberty of those living in Europe who found themselves targeted as suspect terrorists while seeming to do little to ensure the security of the wider community. More recently a second emergency, rooted this time in the financial and economic collapse of 2008 onwards, has caused a further unravelling of Europe's constitutional project, even threatening the gains of past generations of European idealists. In today's Europe universal liberty and security have no meaning for many even if their shape is retained in structures that in truth mock rather than deliver democracy and human rights. This article traces the origins of the crises that have afflicted so directly the breadth of liberty and human security in the Union, demonstrating their roots in 'viruses' that have been present from the start of the European movement but which have now spiralled out of control. The essay ends by asking what can be done to prevent the full decline of the region into a state of neo-democratic/post-democratic unfreedom, one in which capital unbound from democracy thrives at the expense of the people. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Can the process of European unification lead to a form of democracy that is at once supranational and situated above the organisational level of a state? The supranational federation should be constructed in such a way that the heterarchical relationship between the Member States and the federation remains intact. The author finds the basis for such an order in the idea of the EU constituted by a 'doubled' sovereign-the European citizens and the European peoples (the States). In order to sustain such an order, reforms of the existing European treaties are needed. It is necessary to eliminate the legitimation deficits of the EU in a future Euro- Union-that is, a more closely integrated core Europe. The European Parliament would have to gain the right to take legislative initiatives, and the so-called 'ordinary legislative procedure', which requires the approval of both chambers, would have to be extended to all policy fields. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two subjects often fit with difficulty in ‘Fortress Europe’: Equality and Third Country Nationals (TCNs). EC Law presents fundamental weaknesses with regard to TCNs in the intersections between race, religion and nationality discrimination. In particular for non-EU nationals, these three grounds of discrimination can be closely related, and difficult to distinguish. However, they are of great importance for the integration and fair treatment of migrants, which was one of the objectives of the Tampere Programme. This article analyses the extent to which the Race Equality Directive (43/2000/EC) and the Framework Equality Directive (78/2000/EC) provide an effective protection against ‘racial related discrimination’. It suggests that the loopholes of both Directives, together with the current interpretation of Article 12 EC, have institutionalised not only a hierarchy of equalities, but also a hierarchy of peoples, and it explores possible interpretative solutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The judgments of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) of December 2008 in Viking and Laval on the compatibility of national collective labour law with European prerogatives have caused quite a heated critical debate. This article seeks to put this debate in constitutional perspectives. In its first part, it reconstructs in legal categories what Fritz W. Scharpf has characterised as a decoupling of economic integration from the various welfare traditions of the Member States. European constitutionalism, it is submitted, is bound to respond to this problématique. The second part develops a perspective within which such a response can be found. That perspective is a supranational European conflict of laws which seeks to realise what the draft Constitutional Treaty had called the ‘motto of the union’: unitas in pluralitate. Within that framework, the third part analyses two seemingly contradictory trends, namely, first, albeit very briefly, the turn to ‘soft’ modes of governance in the realm of social policy and then, in much greater detail, the ECJ's ‘hard’ interpretations of the supremacy of European freedoms and its strict interpretation of pertinent secondary legislation. The conflict-of-laws approach would suggest a greater respect for national autonomy, in particular, in view of the limited EU competences in the field of labour law. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Soon after the accession of eight post-communist states from Central and Eastern Europe to the EU, the constitutional courts of some of these countries questioned the principle of supremacy of EU law over national constitutional systems, on the basis of their being the guardians of national standards of protection of human rights and of democratic principles. In doing so, they entered into the well-known pattern of behaviour favoured by a number of constitutional courts of the ‘older Europe’, which is called a ‘Solange story’ for the purposes of this article. But this resistance is ridden with paradoxes, the most important of which is a democracy paradox: while accession to the EU was supposed to be the most stable guarantee for human rights and democracy in post-communist states, how can the supremacy of EU law be now resisted on these very grounds? It is argued that the sources of these constitutional courts’ adherence to the ‘Solange’ pattern are primarily domestic, and that it is a way of strengthening their position vis-à-vis other national political actors, especially at a time when the role and independence of those courts face serious domestic challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

: Over a decade since the conception of the Union citizen, the aim of this article very simply is to measure his growth and maturity with a sustained analysis of the jurisprudence of the Court of Justice in this regard. After all, it was Advocate General Lèger who stated that it was for the Court to ensure that its full scope was attained. The article focuses predominantly on three areas of study: Member State nationality law and citizenship, the effect and meaning of Article 18 EC, and the ever-evolving right to equal treatment for the Union citizen. It is fully updated in the light of recent case law, the Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe, and the newly adopted Directive 2004/58 EC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scholars and observers alike agree that the European Union has weakened national parliaments. This article posits that such a view, while generally accurate, ignores ways in which the EU has helped national parliaments in their function as regulators of society. It identifies two key mechanisms: precedent setting and policy transfer. First, the EU has produced laws on topics considered beyond the traditional remit of national parliaments. The EU's intervention has justified the production of unprecedented domestic laws that go well beyond the incorporation of EU principles. This has expanded the legislative reach of national parliaments. The article considers the experiences of Italy and The Netherlands in the area of antitrust. Second, the EU has fostered an environment conducive to cross-national lesson drawing. The resulting knowledge has helped the design of more effective domestic legislative frameworks. This has confirmed the viability of national parliaments as regulatory institutions. The article examines the Open Method of Co-ordination and its application to the areas of employment and social inclusion. It concludes with a discussion of parliaments in future Member States and in Mercosur. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discusses private law and constitutional law in Europe set against a background of constitutional settlement. Protective function of the state to develop private law with due regard to constitutional values; Multi-legal system where there is no cohesive democracy with its atttributes of identity, indivisible sovereignty, and fixed boundaries.