This volume on the law of the European Union focuses on contemporary challenges to EU legality. Such challenges include actions or activities that cast doubt on, or sit uncomfortably with, the premises, principles, and norms that underpin the EU's legal order as proclaimed by the Treaties and the authoritative judgments of the European Court. These premises, principles, and norms range from the precisely formulated to the noticeably vague. The book develops a broader theoretical perspective as well as delving into a range of substantive areas including the Common Foreign and Security Policy, the EU's relationship with international law, migration, the sovereign debt crisis, and Brexit.
The ever-increasing use of technology is challenging the current status of the law, bringing about new problems and questions. The book addresses this trend from the perspective of International law and European Union law and is divided into three main thematic sections. The first section focuses on the legal implications of the use of technology either for law enforcement purposes or in the context of military activities, and examines how this use adds a new dimension to perennial issues, such as the uneasy balance between security concerns and the protection of individual rights, and defining the exact scope of certain State obligations. In so doing, it takes into account a range of current and potential scenarios at the international, regional and domestic level, including the use of killer robots, databases, drones and technology in general to patrol borders, exchange information on criminal suspects, maintain public order, target suspected terrorists and conduct military activities. In turn, the second section examines the role of institutional and non-institutional actors in establishing substantive normative standards for the use of high-tech applications. In this respect, it focuses both on the role that European courts have played so far, and on how other actors’ initiatives can contribute to the construction of a new legal framework for technology-related activities. Lastly, the third section has a two-fold focus: the first part investigates how the increasing reliance on technology is affecting traditional rules on international responsibility, and is challenging, in particular, the attribution of wrongful conduct to States and international organizations. The second part addresses issues of jurisdiction and justiciability. Given the scope of its coverage, this timely book addresses an important lacuna in the current legal scholarship, exploring some of the most recent applications of technology and the legal issues arising as a result. Readers will gain novel insights into the challenges posed to International law and European law by the growing reliance on technology, taking into account both its uses and misuses.
This book presents a broad overview of the many intersections between health and the environment that lie at the basis of the most crucial environmental health issues, focusing on the responses provided by international and EU law. Consistent with the One Health approach and moving from the relevant international and EU legal frameworks, the book addresses some of the most important issues of environmental health including the traditional, such as pollution of air, water and soil and related food safety issues, as well as new and emerging challenges, like those linked to climate change, antimicrobial resistance and electromagnetic fields. Applying an intersectoral and interdisciplinary approach, it also investigates other branches of international and EU law including human rights law, investment law, trade law, energy law and disaster law. The work also discusses ethics and intergenerational equity. Ultimately, the book assesses the degree of effectiveness of the international and EU normative framework, and the extent to which the relevant legal instruments contribute to the protection of public health from major environmental hazards. The book will be a valuable resource for students, academics and policy makers working in the areas of Environmental Health law, Global Health law, International law and EU law.
In recent years, human rights have come under fire, with the rise of political illiberalism and the coming to power of populist authoritarian leaders in many parts of the world who contest and dismiss the idea of human rights. More surprisingly, scholars and public intellectuals, from both the progressive and the conservative side of the political spectrum, have also been deeply critical, dismissing human rights as flawed, inadequate, hegemonic, or overreaching. While acknowledging some of the shortcomings, this book presents an experimentalist account of international human rights law and practice and argues that the human rights movement remains a powerful and appealing one with widespread traction in many parts of the globe. Using three case studies to illuminate the importance and vibrancy of the movement around the world, the book argues that its potency and legitimacy rest on three main pillars: First, it is based on a deeply-rooted and widely appealing moral discourse that integrates the three universal values of human dignity, human welfare, and human freedom. Second, these values and their elaboration in international legal instruments have gained widespread - even if thin - agreement among states worldwide. Third, human rights law and practice is highly dynamic, with human rights being activated, shaped, and given meaning and impact through the on-going mobilization of affected individuals and groups, and through their iterative engagement with multiple domestic and international institutions and processes. The book offers an account of how the human rights movement has helped to promote human rights and positive social change, and argues that the challenges of the current era provide good reasons to reform, innovate, and strengthen that movement, rather than to abandon it or to herald its demise.
This volume on the law of the European Union focuses on contemporary challenges to EU legality. Such challenges include actions or activities that cast doubt on, or sit uncomfortably with, the premises, principles, and norms that underpin the EU's legal order as proclaimed by the Treaties and the authoritative judgments of the European Court. These premises, principles, and norms range from the precisely formulated to the noticeably vague. The book develops a broader theoretical perspective as well as delving into a range of substantive areas including the Common Foreign and Security Policy, the EU's relationship with international law, migration, the sovereign debt crisis, and Brexit.
Contemporary environmental regulation is having to adapt to significant challenges. These challenges come from all directions, including the quest for economic efficiency, popular mistrust of experts and frequent observation of poor practical results. At EU level, criticisms of regulatory activity are accentuated by the significant questions that surround the legitimacy of certain EU institutions and processes. EU Environmental Law examines a range of substantive EU environmental laws and policies and considers far-reaching endeavors to improve environmental regulation.
Private Enforcement of European Competition and State Aid Law Current Challenges and the Way Forward Edited by: Ferdinand Wollenschläger, Wolfgang Wurmnest & Thomas M.J. Möllers The overlapping European Union (EU) regimes of competition law and State aid law both provide mechanisms allowing private plaintiffs to claim compensation for losses or damages. It is thus of significant practical value to provide, as this book does, analysis and guidance on achieving enforcement of such claims, written by renowned authorities in the two fields. The book examines the two areas of law both from an EU perspective and from the perspectives of private enforcement in France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and the United Kingdom. In country reports for these major jurisdictions, as well as in more general and comparative chapters, the authors focus on such issues as the following: impediments to private enforcement; which entity is liable for damages; binding effect of decisions of competition authorities; limitation of actions; collective actions and pooling of claims; enforcement of the standstill obligation (Article 108(3) TFEU); remedies and information deficits; cooperation and coordination between national courts and the European Commission; transposition of the so-called Damages Directive (Directive 2014/104/EU) by the EU Member States; extent to which the strengthening of private enforcement of competition law has a spillover effect on State aid law; and prospects for harmonisation of State aid law. A concluding section identifies enforcement deficits and proposes ways to improve the existing legal framework. As an in-depth assessment of key obstacles and best practices in private enforcement actions, this highly informative and practical volume facilitates choice of the best forum for competition and State aid law cases. Academics and practitioners engaged with this important area of European law will appreciate the authors’ awareness of the economic need and legal particularities which could generate an effective European system of private enforcement of legitimate claims under EU competition and State aid law.
This timely book gives an overview of the main legal issues the EU faces in negotiating, concluding and implementing so-called ‘New Generation’ free trade agreements. Featuring contributions by international specialists on EU external action, this book demonstrates why these FTAs have become challenging for the EU, as well as analysing how the EU has dealt with its institutional constraints, and addresses contemporary debates and future challenges for EU institutions and Member States.
The supranational law of the European Union represents a uniquely powerful, far-reaching, and controversial instance of the growth of international legal governance, one that has forever altered the political and legal landscape of its Member States. The EU has attracted significant attention from political scientists, economists, and lawyers who have analysed its polity and constructed theoretical models of the integration process. Yet it has been almost entirely neglected by analytic philosophers, and the philosophical tools that have been developed to analyse and evaluate the Union are still in their infancy. This book brings together legal philosophers, political philosophers, and EU legal academics in the service of developing the philosophical analysis of EU law. In a series of original and complementary essays they bring their varied disciplinary expertise and theoretical perspectives to bear on central issues facing the Union and its law. Combining both abstract thought in legal and political philosophy and more tangible theoretical work on specific legal issues, the essays in this volume make a significant contribution to developing work on the philosophical foundations of EU law, and will engender further debate between philosophers, political philosophers, and EU legal academics. They will be of interest to all those engaged in understanding the nature and purpose of this unique legal entity.
The European Union has undergone major changes in the last decade, including Treaty reform, and a significant expansion of activity in foreign and security policy, and justice and home affairs. In the first edition of this influential textbook, a team of leading lawyers and political scientists reflected upon the important developments in their chosen area over the time since the EC was formed. This new edition continues this analysis ten years on. Taking into account the social and political background, and without losing sight of the changes that came before, in each chapter the contributors analyze the principle themes and assess the legal and political forces that have shaped its development. Each author addresses a specific topic, event, or theme, from the European Court of Justice to Treaty reform; the enlargement of the EU to administrative law; the effect of EU law on culture to climate change. Together the chapters tell the story of the rapid development of EU law - its past, present, and future.
