For the time being, the political project of basing the European Union on a document entitled 'Constitution' has failed. The second, revised and enlarged edition of this volume retains its title nonetheless. Building on a scholarly rather than black-letter law account, it shows European constitutional law as it looks following the Treaty of Lisbon, with the EU's foundational treaties mandating the exercise of public authority, establishing a hierarchy of norms and legitimising legal acts, providing for citizenship, and granting fundamental rights. In this way the treaties shape the relations between legal orders, between public interest regulation and market economy, and between law and politics. The contributions demonstrate in detail how a constitutional approach furthers understanding of the core issues of EU law, how it offers theoretical and doctrinal insights, and how it adds critical perspective. From Reviews of the First Edition: "...should be mandatory reading for anyone who wants to get a holistic perspective of the academic debate on Europe's constitutional foundations...It is impossible to present the richness of thought contained in the 833 pages of the book in a short review." Common Market Law Review "an enduring scholarly work, which gives an English-speaking audience important, and overdue, access to the long-standing and forever-vigorous traditions of (European) constitutional law... unhesitatingly recommend[ed]." European Law Journal "...real scholarship in the profound sense of the word..." K Lenaerts, Professor of European Law, Leuven

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.

The book analyses the impact the jurisprudence of the constitutional courts of EU Member States and the Court of Justice of the European Union has had on the perception of freedom of communications in the digital era with respect to these courts’ judgments regarding regulating storage and access to telecommunications data (known as telecommunications data retention) from 2008 to 2017. To do so, it examines the jurisprudence of the constitutional courts of Austria, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Ireland, Germany, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, and Slovakia, i.e. those courts that have already ruled on domestic provisions regulating telecommunications data retention. Further, it investigates the judgments of the Court of Justice of European Union regarding directive 2006/24/EC regulating telecommunications data retention along with relevant jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights. As such, the book provides a comparative study of jurisprudence and national measures to implement the Data Retention Directive. Moreover, the book discusses whether our current understanding of protection of freedom of communications guaranteed by the constitutions of EU member states and the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, which was developed in the era of analogue communications, remains accurate in the era of digital technologies and mass surveillance (simultaneously applied by states and private corporations). In this context, the book reconstructs constitutional standards that currently apply in the EU towards data retention. This book presents a unique comparative analysis of all judgments concerning Directive 2006/24/EC, which can be used in the legislative process on the EU forum aimed at introducing new principles of data retention and by constitutional courts in the context of comparative argumentation.

This book explores how foreign policy fits within the complex constitutional structure of the EU, providing both an analysis of the constitutional reality of EU foreign policy and a theoretical analysis suggesting possibilities for reform.

In Constitutional Principles of Local Self-Government in Europe Giovanni Boggero offers a meticulous account of the defining features of European constitutional local government law using both an international and comparative law perspective. The book argues that differences between local government systems in Europe, typical examples of internal affairs of a State, can be smoothed away by construing a consistent system of constitutional principles to be coherently applied at domestic level across the whole European legal space. This system can be best grasped by looking at the European Charter of Local Self-Government, which embodies a concept of self-government rooted in common legal traditions, and at its subsequent practice within the Council of Europe.

Provides a systematic analysis of both the historical development and current interpretation of constitutional law discourse in Europe.

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.