European Consumer Policy after Maastricht
European Consumer Policy after Maastricht

Author: N. Reich

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2013-03-09

Total Pages: 399

ISBN-13: 9401714843

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European Consumer Policy after Maastricht raises both `horizontal' and `vertical' issues of consumer policy in the European Community and associated countries. The work was prompted by three important `constitutional' events in Europe: the completion of the Internal Market on 31 December 1992, the adoption of the Maastricht Treaty on Political Union, and the conclusion of the Agreement on the European Economic Area (EEA). The `horizontal' papers in Part I are concerned both with analyzing the `acquis' of consumer policy in Europe and with new directions as well as obstacles. The keynote paper by Micklitz and Weatherill gives an overall analysis of the political and legal bases of consumer policy from both the Internal Market and the Political Union perspectives. It is followed by two papers on subsidiarity by Gibson and Dahl which take up and clarify a somewhat confusing and irritating discussion in the EC. Lothar Maier is concerned with the function and role of the Consumer's Consultative Council in the EC of which he is the President; Monique Goyens with the opportunities and especially the shortcomings of consumer interest lobbying in the EC by her association, BEUC. The papers by Schmitz, Micklitz, Wilhelmsson and Krämer raise controversial and still unresolved policy and legal issues which go beyond traditional consumer policy via directives, e.g. in commercial marketing, cross-border litigation, contract law matters and conflicts between consumer and conflicts between consumer and environmental policy. Part II is concerned with national perspectives. The individual country reports relate to the EC and EEA countries and to Switzerland. They document the diverse -- sometimes protective, sometimes disturbing -- impact of EC lawmaking on national legislation, court practice and enforcement. They demonstrate that law harmonization is a painstaking process towards the goal of creating a European legal area with common protective standards.

EU Consumer Law and Human Rights
EU Consumer Law and Human Rights

Author: Iris Benöhr

Publisher: OUP Oxford

Published: 2013-12-19

Total Pages: 274

ISBN-13: 0191650641

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Traditionally, consumer law has played an instrumental role in the EU as a tool for market integration. There are now signs in the new EU legal framework and jurisprudence that this may be changing. The Lisbon Treaty contains provisions affecting consumer law and, at the same time, it grants binding legal force to the EU Charter, which in turn adds a fundamental rights dimension to consumer protection. This evolution, however, is still at an early stage and may be thwarted by conflicting trends. Moreover, it may generate tensions between social objectives and economic goals. This book provides the first comprehensive analysis of these developments and examines new avenues that may be opening for consumer law, focusing on three key areas: financial services, electronic communication and access to justice. Through a systematic analysis of relevant cases, the book traces the development of a human rights dimension in consumer law and details the ramifications that the post-Lisbon legal framework may have on consumer protection and policy. This book concludes by proposing new directions in consumer law, striking a compromise between social and economic demands.

The Treaty on European Union 1993-2013
The Treaty on European Union 1993-2013

Author: Maartje De Visser

Publisher:

Published: 2013

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781780682068

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The Treaty on European Union, popularly known as the Maastricht Treaty, has had a profound impact on the process of European integration. This book commemorates the entry into force of the Treaty 20 years ago by evaluating the legal impact it has had on the EU's institutional framework and its policies. The book includes contributions on a wide variety of topics, including Economic and Monetary Union, Union citizenship, fundamental rights, foreign affairs and defense policy, educational policy and environmental policy. The contributions revisit the reasons for the changes the Maastricht Treaty has brought about and examine their development over the years, identifying unexpected success stories, unfulfilled expectations, missed opportunities, and future challenges. The book's contributors are (or have been) associated with the Maastricht Center for European Law or the Faculty of Law of the Maastricht University, giving this book a unique 'Maastricht' flavor. It will be of interest to legal scholars and practitioners with a keen interest in EU law and European integration. (Series: Ius Commune Europaeum - Vol. 123)

Convergence in European Consumer Sales Law
Convergence in European Consumer Sales Law

Author: Cătălina Goantă

Publisher:

Published: 2016

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781780684314

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Aiming to fill a gap in existing literature, this book contains an empirical study of the converging effects of the harmonisation policies used by the European lawmaker in consumer sales law.

The Law of the European Union and the European Communities
The Law of the European Union and the European Communities

Author: Pieter Jan Kuijper

Publisher: Kluwer Law International B.V.

Published: 2018-09-28

Total Pages: 1251

ISBN-13: 9041154124

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The Law of the European Union is a complete reference work on all aspects of the law of the European Union, including the institutional framework, the Internal Market, Economic and Monetary Union and external policy and action. Completely revised and updated, with many newly written chapters, this fifth edition of the most thorough resource in its field provides the most comprehensive and systematic account available of the law of the European Union (EU). Written by a new team of experts in their respective areas of European law, its coverage incorporates and embraces many current, controversial, and emerging issues and provides detailed attention to historical development and legislative history of EU law. Topics that are constantly debated in European legal analysis and practice are touched on in ways that are both fundamental and enlightening, including the following: .powers and functions of the EU law institutions and relationship among them; .the principles of equality, loyalty, subsidiarity, and proportionality; .free movement of persons, goods, services, and capital; .mechanisms of constitutional change – treaty revisions, accession treaties, withdrawal agreements; .budgetary principles and procedures; .State aid rules; .effect of Union law in national legal systems; .coexistence of EU, European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR), and national fundamental rights law; .migration and asylum law; .liability of Member States for damage suffered by individuals; .competition law – cartels, abuse of dominant position, merger control; .social policy, equal pay, and equal treatment; .environmental policy, consumer protection, public health, cultural policy, education, and tourism; .nature of EU citizenship, its acquisition, and loss; and .law and policy of the EU’s external relations. The fifth edition embraces many new, ongoing, and emerging European legal issues. As in the previous editions, the presentation is notable for its attention to how the law relates to economic and political realities and how the various policy areas interact with each other and with the institutional framework. The many practitioners and scholars who have relied on the predecessors of this definitive work for years will welcome this extensively revised and updated edition. Those coming to the field for the first time will instantly recognize that they are in the presence of a masterwork that can always be turned to with profit and that helps in understanding the rationale underlying any EU law provision or principle.

Rethinking EU Consumer Law
Rethinking EU Consumer Law

Author: Geraint Howells

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2017-07-28

Total Pages: 429

ISBN-13: 135167532X

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In Rethinking EU Consumer Law, the authors analyse the development of EU consumer law on the basis of a number of clear themes, which are then traced through specific areas. Recurring themes include the artificiality of the EU’s consumer image, the problems created by the drive towards maximum harmonisation, and the unexpected effects EU Consumer Law has had on national law. The book argues that EU Consumer Law has the potential of enhancing the protecting of consumers throughout the EU and could offer a model for consumer law elsewhere in the world, but in order to unlock this potential, there needs to be a rethink with regard to the EU’s approach to consumer law and policy.

The Nature of Mutual Recognition in European Law
The Nature of Mutual Recognition in European Law

Author: Wouter van Ballegooij

Publisher:

Published: 2015-07-01

Total Pages: 414

ISBN-13: 9781780683263

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There is substantial disagreement in academic literature over how to address the tensions between the application of mutual recognition and the safeguarding of individual rights, particularly in the EU's criminal justice arena. This book investigates those tensions by re-examining the nature of mutual recognition in European law from an individual rights perspective. A key question is the role played by mutual recognition in the process of reconciling free movement and other interests. The book contains a comparative analysis of mutual recognition in the internal market and the 'area of freedom, security, and justice.' It assesses mutual recognition in the context of the aims of both areas, as well as the principles of European law and norms laid down in primary/secondary EU law. The analysis follows mutual recognition in the fields of product requirements, professional qualifications, and judicial decisions in criminal matters. The book concludes that the core function of mutual recognition has been obscured by assertions made by EU policy makers regarding its consequences, which fail to distinguish between policy objectives, integration methods, and legal obligations. This has also led to a debate among academics and an interpretation of mutual recognition by the Court of Justice which presents an unnecessary conflict between the application of mutual recognition and the safeguarding of individual rights. It is argued that, for mutual recognition to have a stable future in the EU criminal justice area, clarity regarding its aims is urgently required and individual rights need to be enhanced, both in judicial cooperation measures and through harmonization of suspects' rights in criminal proceedings. (Series: Ius Commune Europaeum - Vol. 138) [Subject: European Law, Human Rights Law, Criminal Justice]

The Making of Consumer Law and Policy in Europe
The Making of Consumer Law and Policy in Europe

Author: Hans-W Micklitz

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2021-11-04

Total Pages: 400

ISBN-13: 1509944842

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This book analyses the founding years of consumer law and consumer policy in Europe. It combines two dimensions: the making of national consumer law and the making of European consumer law, and how both are intertwined. The chapters on Germany, Italy, the Nordic countries and the United Kingdom serve to explain the economic and the political background which led to different legal and policy approaches in the then old Member States from the 1960s onwards. The chapter on Poland adds a different layer, the one of a former socialist country with its own consumer law and how joining the EU affected consumer law at the national level. The making of European consumer law started in the 1970s rather cautiously, but gradually the European Commission took an ever stronger position in promoting not only European consumer law but also in supporting the building of the European Consumer Organisation (BEUC), the umbrella organisation of the national consumer bodies. The book unites the early protagonists who were involved in the making of consumer law in Europe: Guido Alpa, Ludwig Krämer, Ewa Letowska, Hans-W Micklitz, Klaus Tonner, Iain Ramsay, and Thomas Wilhelmsson, supported by the younger generation Aneta Wiewiórowska Domagalska, Mateusz Grochowski, and Koen Docter, who reconstructs the history of BEUC. Niklas Olsen and Thomas Roethe analyse the construction of this policy field from a historical and sociological perspective. This book offers a unique opportunity to understand a legal and political field, that of consumer law and policy, which plays a fundamental role in our contemporary societies.

Energy Poverty
Energy Poverty

Author: Stefan Bouzarovski

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2017-12-22

Total Pages: 125

ISBN-13: 3319692992

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This open access book aims to consolidate and advance debates on European and global energy poverty by exploring the political and infrastructural drivers and implications of the condition across a variety of spatial scales. It highlights the need for a geographical conceptualization of the different ways in which household-level energy deprivation both influences and is contingent upon disparities occurring at a wider range of spatial scales. There is a strong focus on the relationships among energy transformation, institutional change and place-based factors in determining the nature and location of energy-related injustices. The book also explores how patterns and structures of energy poverty have changed over time, as evidenced by some of the common measures used to describe the condition. In part, this means investigating the makeup of energy poor demographics across various social and spatial cleavages. More broadly, it also argues that energy sector reconfigurations are both reflected in and shaped by various domains of social and political organization, especially in terms of creating poverty-relevant outcomes.