In order to meet the changing needs of the agricultural sector, the European Union has advocated a new 'European model of Agriculture' which will provide a competitive and diverse agricultural sector that is environmentally responsible and that uses Community funds wisely. In order to implement such a range of policies the EU will need to pass a large amount of legislation. This book sets out to analyze whether the legislative framework for this model is feasible and whether it can deliver these policy objectives.
The timely analysis of the tension between the EU model and the global...

The aim of this work is two-fold. First it attempts to construct a more solid critique of the European Union principle of subsidiarity. Second it tries to explain why the European Court of Justice is not fully implementing subsidiarity. Introduced in the EU legal order as a last resort protection mechanism for member states in a minoroty position in the Council of Ministers regarding a particular issue, the principle of subsidiarity is not only misplaced to fulfill that goal, but also its underlying logic has potential side-effects for European integration. Furthermore it is argued that, the...

The most effective international legal system in the world exists in Europe. It works much like a domestic system, where violations of the law are brought to court, legal decisions are respected, and the autonomous influence of law and legal rulings extends into the political process itself. The European legal system was not always so effective at influencing state behavior and compelling compliance. Indeed the European Community's original legal system was intentionally designed to have very limited monitoring and enforcement capabilities. The European Court of Justice transformed the...

This title provides a topical contribution to the growing body of literature in this area. The 1999 Treaty of Amsterdam expanded significantly the legal competence of the European Union for combatting discrimination. Traditionally, EU law has concentrated on discrimination between women and men and discrimination on the grounds of EU nationality. However, Article 13 EC created a new legal space for the Union to regulate discrimination on the ground of racial or ethnic origin, religion or belief, disability, age, or sexual orientation. This book aims to improve our understanding of the...

The Law Lords have attributed the supremacy of European Community law in Britain to Parlaiment's 'entirely voluntary' surrender of sovereignty. This book describes, from a Parliamentary perspective, how sovereignty was actually lost. It charts the evolution of MP's constitutional understandings of EC membership and the transformation from a constitution based on politics to one based on law.

The European Union's growing accountability deficit threatens to undermine its legitimacy. This was acknowledged by the Member States at their summit in Nice in December 2001. Recognising the need to improve 'the democratic legitimacy and transparency of the Union and its institutions, in order to bring them closer to its citizens', they agreed to launch a debate on the Union's future. That debate will start to crystallise in 2004, when negotiations on a new set of Treaty changes will begin.
The issue will therefore remain high on the political agenda for the foreseeable future. The...

The contributors to this interdisciplinary collection of essays consider various aspects of accountability and legitimacy in the European Union. How open should the Union's decision-making be? What is the right balance between accountability and efficiency? Does the Union now need a formal constitution? How can respect for democracy, fundamental rights and the rule of law in the Union best be ensured? These are just some of the questions explored in this book. It will be of interest to anyone concerned with the future of Europe, from students and academics to policy-makers, and...

This book examines the relationship between law and public services. Prosser argues that there are important limits to the applicability of competition law in this context. He illustrates his theme by discussing the law in the UK, France and Italy, and at the EU level, and provides a case study considering public service broadcasting.

The EU's human rights policies are plagued by double standards: it applies radically different approaches in its external and internal operations. In this book, Andrew Williams reveals the nature and scope of this bifurcation and the resultant discrimination, and argues that the ironical condition revealed undermines both the EU's commitment to human rights and its moral credibility.

This book compares how and why the European Court of Justice, the French Cour de cassation and the United States Supreme Court offer different approaches for generating judicial accountability and control, judicial debate and deliberation, and ultimately judicial legitimacy.