The criticism of the perceived 'competence creep' of the European Union is not new. The book, The Outer Limits of European Union Law (comprising an introduction and 15 chapters) sheds some light on the validity of this criticism. It is persuasive in its claim that there are ultimate limits to the European Union's competence and reveals both the strengths and the weaknesses of these limits. The book addresses the limits of EU law from three angles. First, the book seeks to draw these limits in different policy areas (citizenship, police co-operation, free movement provisions, etc.). Secondly, it addresses broader questions of legitimacy and the nature of the integrated European legal order. Thirdly, it discusses specific mechanisms (Art.308 EC), principles (proportionality, subsidiarity, conferred powers) and techniques used by the European Courts, the institutions, and the Member States to extend or contain EU law.

A commonly expressed view is that the citizens and the Member States are destined to be overcome by the European Union. There is a sense that the Union of today is not what was intended to be created or acceded to by the Member States or its citizens. The Outer Limits of European Union Law brings together a diverse group of legal scholars to consider aspects of EU substantive, constitutional and procedural law in a manner highlighting the many senses in which the European Union is or can be limited and so demonstrating that the fear of being overcome is largely a false fear. By exploring the mechanisms and devices used to limit the European Union, the contributors also reveal not only the strengths of the various limits, but also and more crucially the weakness of the limits , thereby demonstrating that the prospect of being overcome may be a genuine risk to be guarded against. By considering general themes (eg legitimacy) and core subject areas (eg policing, free movement of goods, remedies) the book reveals the various techniques used by the Court of Justice, Community institutions and Member States to define and modify the outer limits of the European Union and European Union Law.

The book illustrates the function of legal doctrines in a discourse on the extent of powers of international institutions, and questions whether a move to a constitutional vocabulary can transcend the dichotomy at the heart of diverging constructions of powers.

Die Arbeit untersucht das Spannungsfeld zwischen einem fairen Resultat und Fairplay im Rechtsverfahren. Bislang hat der Europäische Gerichtshof es traditionell abgelehnt, hier eine klare Wahl zu treffen, indem er sich in Vorabentscheidungen im Zusammenhang mit der ex officio-Überprüfung weitgehend dem nationalen Recht unterwirft. Diese Arbeit zeigt, dass spezifische Schutzvorrechte zunehmend substantiell korrekte Urteile hervorgebracht haben, während ein neuer Grundrechtsansatz den individuellen Verfahrensschutz nicht gefördert hat.

The Research Handbook on Law and Courts provides a systematic analysis of new work on courts as governing institutions. Authors consider how courts have taken on regulating fundamental categories of inclusion and exclusion, including citizenship rights. Courts’ centrality to governance is addressed in sections on judicial processes, sub-national courts, and political accountability, all analyzed in multiple legal/political systems. Other chapters turn to analyzing the worldwide push for diversity in staffing courts. Finally, the digitization of records changes both court processes and studying courts. Authors included in the Handbook discuss theoretical, empirical and methodological approaches to studying courts as governing institutions. They also identify promising areas of future research.

International courts and tribunals are often asked to review decisions originally made by domestic decision-makers. This can often be a source of tension, as the international courts and tribunals need to judge how far to defer to the original decisions of the national bodies. As international courts and tribunals have proliferated, different courts have applied differing levels of deference to those originial decisions, which can lead to a fragmentation in international law. International courts in such positions rely on two key doctrines: the standard of review and the margin of appreciation. The standard of review establishes the extent to which national decisions relating to factual, legal, or political issues arising in the case are re-examined in the international court. The margin of appreciation is the extent to which national legislative, executive, and judicial decision-makers are allowed to reflect diversity in their interpretation of human rights obligations. The book begins by providing an overview of the margin of appreciation and standard of review, recognising that while the margin of appreciation explicitly acknowledges the existence of such deference, the standard of review does not: it is rather a procedural mechanism. It looks in-depth at how the public policy exception has been assessed by the European Court of Justice and the WTO dispute settlement bodies. It examines how the European Court of Human Rights has taken an evidence-based approach towards the margin of appreciation, as well as how it has addressed issues of hate speech. The Inter-American system is also investigated, and it is established how far deference is possible within that legal organisation. Finally, the book studies how a range of other international courts, such as the International Criminal Court, and the Law of the Sea Tribunal, have approached these two core doctrines.

There is a highly significant and under-considered intersection and interaction between migration law and labor law. Labor lawyers have tended to regard migration law as generally speaking outside their purview, and migration lawyers have somewhat similarly tended to neglect labor law. The culmination of a collaborative project on 'Migrants at Work' funded by the John Fell Fund, the Society of Legal Scholars, and the Research Centre at St John's College, Oxford, this volume brings together distinguished legal and migration scholars to examine the impact of migration law on labor rights and how the regulation of migration increasingly impacts upon employment and labor relations. Examining and clarifying the interactions between migration, migration law, and labor law, contributors to the volume identify the many ways that migration law, as currently designed, divides the objectives of labor law, privileging concerns about the labor supply and demand over worker-protective concerns. In addition, migration law creates particular forms of status, which affect employment relations, thereby dividing the subjects of labor law. Chapters cover the labor laws of the UK, Australia, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Germany, Sweden, and the US. References are also made to discrete practices in Brazil, France, Greece, New Zealand, Mexico, Poland, and South Africa. These countries all host migrants and have developed systems of migration law reflecting very different trajectories. Some are traditional countries of immigration and settlement migration, while others have traditionally been countries of emigration but now import many workers. There are, nonetheless, common features in their immigration law which have a profound impact on labor law, for instance in their shared contemporary shift to using temporary labor migration programs. Further chapters examine EU and international law on migration, labor rights, human rights, and human trafficking and smuggling, developing cross-jurisdictional and multi-level perspectives. Written by leading scholars of labor law, migration law, and migration studies, this book provides a diverse and multidisciplinary approach to this field of legal interaction, of interest to academics, policymakers, legal practitioners, trade unions, and migrants' groups alike.