This book gives a detailed analysis of the making of the Treaty of Nice, the current treaty of the European Union, adopted in 2000. It analysis the interests and strategies of the various actors, including the 15 Member States, during the negotiations and tries to explain the main institutional changes: re-weighting of votes in the Council of Ministers, future changes in the composition of the European Commission, extended use of qualified majority voting and easier conditions for a smaller group of Member States going faster in the integration process ('enhanced cooperation').

All over Europe we witness a spectacular rise of the recourse to fundamental rights in debates on civil liability. This is part of a pervasive process of constitutionalisation, of private law in general and tort law in particular. This publication aims at establishing a clear analysis of the nature and growth of the C-factor (C for constitutionalisation) in Germany, France, the UK and The Netherlands. This analysis will be followed by answering the questions: How are these developments to be judged? Does the C-factor seriously undermine the autonomy of private law ('The purpose of private law...

In the complicated legal and political situation that reigns in Europe at the moment, characterized not at least by the uncertainty of what happens with the proposed EU constitution after negative results in the French and Dutch referendums in 2005, it has become increasingly important to analyse the EU constitutional frameworks from historical and comparative perspectives. This book provides new insights based on perspectives from Member States such as Germany and Italy as well as the Nordic Countries. It also deals with European legal and philosophical heritage in general, as well as...

The Constitution incorporates human rights as a dominant feature of its order pervading every aspect of the law and has been the sole source of authority, with the Judiciary cast as a watchdog trusted to ensure that no branch of the State transgresses the boundaries of its powers. The book chronicles through the case law of the Supreme Court, a precedent of constitutionalism worthy of the attention of every scholar of constitutional law.

Central European Constitutional Courts in the Face of EU Membership explores the enduring German legal influence on other systems of constitutional justice, concentrating on the impact of the Federal Constitutional Court's approach to EU integration on its counterparts in Hungary and Poland. Such a model aims to protect Germany's constitutional identity or essential core of sovereignty, the contents of which are not susceptible to transfer or limitation, in the face of the requirements of the Union's constitutional legal order. The influence of this model on the two Central European...

In Global Constitutionalism and the Path of International Law, Surendra Bhandari succinctly offers an account of the most important growth and features of international law from the perspectives of global constitutionalism. The author examines the concept from its constitutive features and the operative standards or modus operandi. These two aspects offer a new and innovative methodology in explicating the theory of 'global constitutionalism'. By examining three cases: international trade (WTO), human rights, and the role of Security Council, the author demonstrates how the idea of...