Alexander Stubb, a participant in the 1996-97 and 2000 Intergovernmental Conferences analyzes the evolution of flexible integration from the early 1970s to the present day and beyond. He focuses in the process of negotiations which led to the institutionalisation of flexibility in the Amsterdam and Nice Treaties. This book provides a valuable insider's view on historical decisionmaking in the European Union.

This book addresses the changing constitutional framework of the EU and the changing patterns of governance within this complex polity.

This book traces the evolution of European Union employment law and social policy from its essentially economic origins in the Treaty of Rome through to the emerging themes post-Amsterdam: co-ordination of national employment policies,modernisation of social laws and combating discrimination. Each stage of development of Community employment law and social policy is analysed in depth to give a sense of perspective to this fast changing field. As the European Union seeks to meet the challenges of globalisation the need to develop social policy as a productive factor has come to the fore. The author explains how the social, economic and employment imperatives of European integration have always been intertwined and how the emergence of Community employment law from its hitherto twilight existence is best understood through an examination of consistent strands of policy development.

Sovereignty marks the boundary between politics and law. Highlighting the legal context of politics and the political context of law, it thus contributes to the internal dynamics of both political and legal systems. This book comprehends the persistence of sovereignty as a political and juridical concept in the post-sovereign social condition. The tension and paradoxical relationship between the semantics and structures of sovereignty and post-sovereignty are addressed by using the conceptual framework of the autopoietic social systems theory. Using a number of contemporary European examples, developments and paradoxes, the author examines topics of immense interest and importance relating to the concept of sovereignty in a globalising world. The study argues that the modern question of sovereignty permanently oscillating between de iure authority and de facto power cannot be discarded by theories of supranational and transnational globalized law and politics. Criticising quasi-theological conceptualizations of political sovereignty and its juridical form, the study reformulates the concept of sovereignty and its persistence as part of the self-referential communication of the systems of positive law and politics. The book will be of considerable interest to academics and researchers in political, legal and social theory and philosophy.

Candid exploration of what Europe needs to do to overcome current crises, by a leading figure in the European Union.

Originating in the June 1998 joint conference of the United Kingdom Association for European Law (UKAEL) and the University Association for Contemporary Studies (UACES) and edited by David O'Keeffe and Patrick Twomey,this book brings together a collection of essays that offer critical insights into the institutional and substantive changes to the European Community and Union resulting from the Treaty of Amsterdam. With a preface by Lord Slynn of Hadley, the collection includes essays based on the conference presentations of Joseph Weiler, Anthony Arnull, Alan Dashwood, Franklin Dehousse, Hans Ulrich Jessurun d'Oliveira and Laurens Jan Brinkhorst and some twenty other essays offering the reflections and criticisms of leading academics in the field as well as the unique insights of contributors working within the Community institutions.